


The Makings of Forever

by SecretlyAGryffindor



Series: Supposed to be Forever [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Marauders, Rise of Voldemort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-06
Updated: 2014-05-19
Packaged: 2017-12-17 22:31:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 70,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/872708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecretlyAGryffindor/pseuds/SecretlyAGryffindor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily, James and all of their friends are starting their first year of Hogwarts! They are all excited and nervous for the year to come, though some more than others. Whether it be a secret they don't want to get out, others are just happy to leave home. But they all have one thing in common, these first two years will be the last when everyone is happy, they are the calm before the storm. (Prequel to Beginning of Forever)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is a re-write of my story from about 4 years ago on FF. I have been getting inspiration for these characters again, so I am going back and reviving them! Hopefully you will enjoy it! Also, I am planning a sequel, which will start in their 6th year! So this story introduces all of the characters and allows you to get a back ground with all of them! Basically, it's a prequel to a story that I haven't posted yet. So enjoy their innocence!

Remus Lupin knew that he was a wizard.

In fact, he had known he was a wizard since he was the ripe age of four and had turned his old friend's hair green after he had embarrassed him (by starting a rumor that Remus’ favorite food was mud pies). He has since moved on from that incident, but unfortunately for him, he ended up with even bigger problems, ones he wouldn’t dare mention to anyone who wasn’t his parents. It was because of these that he never thought that he would have the opportunity to go to school with all of the other young wizards and witches his age.

You see, Remus Lupin was not normal, not even by the standards of the Wizarding Word. He was, to put it bluntly, shunned by most people. Well, he would have been if more people knew his little secret. At the age of six, Remus had been bitten by a werewolf; a werewolf that went by the name Fenrir Greyback. So it had been a shock to both him and his parents when two days earlier, he got his Hogwarts letter.

He and his parents were to meet with Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, to see what had been set up for him so that he would be out of the way when he transformed under the full moon. If it was considered safe enough, he would actually be able to go to Hogwarts!

With that thought, he climbed out of bed and got dressed – moving a little slowly because the full moon had been just three days ago, and he was still regaining his strength.

"Morning mum! Morning dad!" Remus called as he raced (a little slower than usual) down the stairs.

"Morning, sweetie!" his mother smiled back at him, "As soon as you finish eating, we'll be heading out."

Remus quickly chomped down a piece of toast, unsure if he could eat any more than that. After a mini five-minute almost-argument (his mother seemed  _so_ amused) that he was really done eating, they took a portkey to the small town near the school, where a carriage pulled by what he guessed were invisible horse took them towards the magnificent castle. Once they got to the castle Remus blindly followed his parents inside, too busy staring at everything, taking it all in, because he wasn’t sure he would ever be back. He was led into the Great Hall, and when they stopped Remus looked around and he felt his mouth drop. It was beautiful; the ceiling looked exactly like the sky outside! But before he had the chance to really look around, a man with twinkling blue eyes that were hiding behind half-moon spectacles along with a long silvery bread and equally long silvery hair stood and began walking toward them. This, he presumed, was Professor Albus Dumbledore, the man he would forever be grateful to, because he knew what Remus was, and he was giving him a chance. A chance Remus didn’t think he deserved.

"Good morning," he inclined his head slightly toward them, "I am Professor Dumbledore."

"Hello Professor. Pleased to meet you…" Remus' manners kicked in, "I'm Remus, Remus Lupin."

"I know," he said with a smile, "Now if you will please follow me out onto the grounds, I will show you where you will be able to transform, should you choose to come to school."

The Lupin family nodded in a scary unison, and followed Dumbledore onto the grounds. They walked a good distance across the grounds, until they stopped a little ways away from a giant willow tree. Unlike normal willow trees, however, its branches were swinging around wildly with enough force to knock someone straight off of their feet.

"This tree is called a Whomping Willow; it will swing its branches at anyone who gets too close. Hidden at its base is a small entrance. It leads to a secure place where you, Remus, can transform without fear of harming anyone. Our medi-witch, Madame Pomfrey, will escort you here an hour before the full moon; you will meet her in the Great Hall, unless you go into the Hospital Wing earlier that day." He gestured with one hand at the swinging branches, seeming almost amused.

"When you arrive you will take a stick that is long enough to get at the tree – one is hidden behind those bushes – and use it to prod the knot on the tree – that will immobilize it. After it is immobilized, you will be able to go down the secret passage," Dumbledore quietly explained to the Lupins, "Like so."

Professor Dumbledore picked up a long, sturdy stick and prodded the knot at the base of the tree with it. The tree immediately stopped moving, and they all followed Dumbledore into the dark tunnel. Finally, they reached the end of the tunnel and Dumbledore opened a trap door, which lead into a torn apart looking room. There were no valuables anywhere.

"This is the Shrieking Shack," Dumbledore intoned, "I have started a rumor that it is haunted so no one from Hogsmeade Village will enter; and as you saw no one from Hogwarts can get past the tree, so no one will have the dreadful misfortune of coming across a transformed werewolf. There are also all sorts of spells here, preventing the walls from breaking and allowing you to get out."

"Th-Thank you sir." Remus managed to stutter out, too much in shock and gratefulness. He would actually be able to go to school, well, he thought so, he hoped his parents would agree!

"It is a pleasure to help you, Mr. Lupin. Now, only the staff will know that you are a werewolf, but none of them are allowed to tell any of the students."

"Thank you very much Professor," his mother said with a smile, "Remus quite wants to come to school here, don't you darling?"

"Yes!" Remus nodded his head fervently.

"Very well; I shall see you on September first, Mr. Lupin." Dumbledore inclined his head toward Remus, "And if you ever need anything, feel free to come and speak to me in my office."

Another round of thanks was heard from the Lupin family before they politely said farewells and Disapparated. At home, Remus ran upstairs into his room and looked at his calendar. There was only a week and a half before the first.

"Mom!" Remus called, exiting his room and wheeling down the stairs.

"Yes, sweetheart?" his mom answered from the living room.

"When am I going to go to Diagon Alley to get my school supplies?" asked Remus.

"How about we go this weekend? It's still a week before school starts. Does that sound good?" his father offered.

"Yes Dad," Remus grinned thankfully, running back up to his room.

He simply could not wait! He hadn’t felt this happy in a very long time.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

11-year-old Lily Evans was sitting on her bed in her small, pale blue room. To say she was excited would be an understatement. Tomorrow would be the first time she would enter the Wizarding World. She had just found out she was a Witch, well Severus had told, but she had figured it was just some sick joke (who wouldn’t?). But when Professor Flitwick, a small man who taught Charms at Hogwarts, had shown up at her house the day before, it all dawned on her that it was indeed real. Tomorrow she would be going into Diagon Alley to get all of her school supplies. Even better she was going alone. Her parents both had to work, and her sister had told her, quite rudely, that she did not want to go with her either. Professor Flitwick had given her instructions about how to get there. So tomorrow morning she would wake up at 7 sharp, and her dad, Harry, would drive her to the Underground train and drop her off, there she would take the train to the center of London, and walk to find the Leaky Cauldron. Once there, she would ask the bar tender, whose name she was told was Tom, he would take her to Diagon Alley. She was happy that Severus had convinced his mom to go tomorrow as well, and was hoping that she would run into him there.

She was a little nervous about going alone, but she was also excited. Professor Flitwick had assured both of her parents that it would be perfectly safe for her to go alone. He told her that if she had any questions to not be afraid to ask someone for help. She decided to see this as an opportunity to explore her new world. Besides, it wasn’t as though her parents would be at school with her, so why not get used to it? It also meant that she could take as long as she wanted looking at things and taking it all in.

She sat thinking about the Wizarding World a little while longer wondering what it would be like, and how different it would be, and then decided it would be best to go to sleep so that she was not tired for tomorrow. Though, she was so excited it took her a little longer to fall asleep than she would have liked.

The next morning Lily's alarm clock went off at exactly 7, and she ran into her bathroom, which she shared with her older sister Petunia, and took a nice and warm shower, got out, got dressed, in her jean skirt, that went up to just above her knee, and her bright green tank-top, then put her bright red hair into a high and messy pony-tail and ran downstairs to find her mom and dad sitting at the table. She quickly ran into the kitchen grabbed her box of cereal, a bowl, a spoon and some milk and joined her parents at the table. She had finished her cereal in 6 and a half minutes, and quickly grabbed her gray zip-up sweatshirt and followed her dad to his car, where she took the passenger seat.

"Lily honey, I want you to be safe today alright?"

"Of course Daddy!" she said, giving her father a toothy grin.

"And remember to get on the 2 o'clock train back home, where your Grandma Daisy will pick you up."

"I know Daddy, don't worry I will be fine."

"Alright Lils."

They drove in silence for the rest of the way. When they reached the underground train station she kissed her dad on the cheek, he gave her money for the train, her supplies and lunch, and with that she hopped out of the car and ran to the ticket booth where she bought her ticket for both the rides to and from London. Then she sat and not so patiently waited for the train to come. When it finally did come she sat fidgeting for an hour, trying to hide how excited she was, and when the train finally got to her stop she jumped off eagerly, grabbing a map, and looked for the road where she was supposed to go to. When she spotted it she set off in a power walk all the way there, well that is until she saw the Leaky Cauldron, then she started running towards it. When she entered, she was surprised to find how crowded it was, and she carefully made her way to the bar where she found a person cleaning glasses. She assumed that this man was Tom.

"Um, excuse me, but I was told that you would be able to help me get into Diagon Alley…" said Lily, suddenly very nervous.

"Yes, follow me," Tom said, setting the towel and the glasses down.

He led her to the back room, and then pulled out his wand then she watched him count the bricks above the trash can, three up and two across, then tapped his wand against the wall three times. Suddenly a small hole appeared, then it started growing larger and larger, and soon enough it was a doorway, which led onto a very busy street. This she assumed was Diagon Alley. Smiling she turned to Tom to thank him, but when she looked over she realized that he was gone, so she started walking into the Alley. She knew that the first place she had to go was Gringotts, which Flitwick told her was the largest, building, and was also made up of white marble. She entered, and gasped. Even though Flitwick had told her about them, the fact that there would be goblins was still very surprised. She did as Flitwick had instructed and went over the area where it said; Muggle money exchange, and went over to a free goblin who was sitting on a large podium, and exchanged her money. When she was done she decided that she did not like goblins very much, in fact, she found them kind of creepy. But that thought left her mind immediately when she remembered that she had a bag full of Wizarding money to spend. She turned her head in every direction wondering where to go first, and decided to go and get her wand. She looked around for a store that looked like it would sell her a magic wand, and finally came across Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. When she entered she found that there was already someone in there trying to find their wand too, no doubt. This boy had messy black hair that stuck out at many angles; he was tall and really skinny. She also noticed that he was there with his parents, both of which had black hair, his father's also sticking up in odd angles, and both of them had sparkling hazel eyes, so she assumed that he did as well.

"Here try this wand," said the old man, she assumed was Ollivander, "It is mahogany, 11inches, pliable, which is excellent for Transfiguration."

She watched as the small boy, who had now turned to look at his parents, smile grew very large.

"I think that this is it!" he said in a very excited tone.

"I agree," said the old man, "Now that will be 7 galleons."

She watched as the father of the little boy took out a huge bag and took out seven gold coins.

After they paid they left but as they were walking out the little boy with the hazel eyes gave her a big grin.

"Now, who might we have here?" asked Mr. Ollivander.

"Lily Evans Sir," she said.

"Well Lily Evans, I do not seem to remember seeing your parents in here, so I take that you are a Muggle born?"

"Yes."

"Very well, now which arm will be your wand arm?"

"Is that the arm that I write with?" she asked feeling rather stupid, and when he nodded she added, "Then my right arm."

And soon he was taking all sorts of measurements, some of which didn’t make any sense, but she decided not to question it. Soon enough she was trying out wands, and after trying 5, she was getting nervous,  _what if she wasn't really a witch? What if she did not get a wand?_ But finally after trying 7 she found her wand, willow 10 ¼ swishy, which Ollivander told her was good for charm work. She paid 6 galleons and 4 sickles for her wand, and then was off. She went into Flourish and Blotts where she bought all of her books and a couple others for light reading, including  _Hogwarts, A History._ After Flourish and Blotts she went to the Apothecary and got all the ingredients on her list, and then she went into a store and bought a cauldron, then some quills and some ink. Lastly she went into Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions to buy her school robes, and she figured she'd buy a pair of emerald green dress robes, to bring out her almond shaped emerald eyes, along with some school robes. When she entered she noticed that there was already someone in there. She was getting fitted by a squat witch and looking a little bored.

When the squat witch noticed she had entered she smiled and said, "Do you need your Hogwarts robes dear?"

"Yes," Lily said.

"Well then come back here and I shall get you fitted as well."

Lily nodded and made her way to the back.

When she got back there the girl who was getting fitted waved enthusiastically and said, "Hi! I'm Alice! Are you just starting at Hogwarts this year to?"

"Hi, I'm Lily, and yes I will be starting at Hogwarts this year as well," said Lily; she decided she liked the hyper little blonde.

"Cool! What House do you want to be in?"

Lily thought hard, then she said, "Well, I think that I might want to be in Slytherin, my friend Severus says that's where he wants to be and I would like to be with him, but when Professor Flitwick explained the House to me I figured I wouldn't mind being in either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, not that Hufflepuff would be bad."

"Are you a Muggle born?" Alice asked.

"Yes…"

"Than you don't want to be in Slytherin, no offense. Most of the Slytherins are predigest against Muggle born witches and wizards, so I don't think that's would be the right place for you, no offense."

"Really? Severus never told me that, he said I would fit in just fine, but if you say so, I would probably like to be in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. What about you?'

"I want to be in Hufflepuff or Gryffindor," Alice said, with a huge smile, and then excitedly added, "Maybe we will be in the same House!"

"Maybe!" said Lily, equally happy to know someone else, someone who she could end up sharing a room with.

"All right, you ladies are done. Have a fun year," said Madam Malkin.

"Okay, well I will see you at school Lily!" said Alice.

"Yeah! Bye!" said Lily, hoping she would see her again because she had been so friendly.

And with that she looked at her watch and realized it was already time to go so she raced off to go to the underground train station. Where she took the hour ride train back, and met up with her Grandma, who took her home.

At dinner that night she told her family all about Diagon Alley, and the hyper girl named Alice. Her parents seemed very pleased; her sister on the other hand wore a scowl. She knew her sister was jealous that she was a witch and she wasn't, her and Severus had looked through her room and found the letter that Dumbledore had written to her, telling her that he was sorry, but she was not a witch and could not come to Hogwarts with her sister. When her sister had found out that Lily and Severus had looked threw her room she was furious. Since then she had hardly spoken a word to Lily, and when it had it had been nothing nice.

She went to bed that night thinking about what it was going to be like going to Hogwarts tomorrow, she had packed up just about everything that she was going to need and was very excited. She knew that she was going to get a very small amount of sleep that night.


	3. Chapter 3

Sirius was excited. Today he was going to go to Diagon Alley to get all of his school supplies. Granted, he had been to Diagon Alley multiple times, this time was different. Today he would be buying his school supplies before he left for school the next day. The only down side to this was he would have to spend the entire day with his pureblood obsessed family, pointing out who he could be friends with at school and who he was not allowed to talk to. He laughed at the fact that they actually thought that he would listen to them, because, really, when had he ever? Unlike his family, he did not care about if a person was a pureblood or not. He cared more about how you acted, making him one of the black sheep of the family. He was excited that tomorrow he would be able to leave his family for an entire year, well except all his annoying cousins and all of the other annoying pure blood obsessed prats who his parents no doubt told to keep an eye on him (though, Sirius would like to see them try and keep him in line…). He only had one normal cousin, and she was not even technically his cousin anymore, she had gotten disowned by her parents two summers ago when she was in her fourth year, so he was excited to finally getting to see her again at school.

"Sirius Orin Black! Get down here at once!" cried his mum; Sirius often thought that she sounded like a banshee-he supposed she looked a lot like one as well…if it weren’t for the giant family tree on the wall he would have thought she was related to one.

"Coming Mum!" Sirius called back, rolling his eyes at her ‘urgency’.

He slowly made his way down the stairs to the kitchen where his mom, father, and younger brother Regulus were all waiting, standing up straight and acting important even though no one could see them. His father was a firm believer in always acting more important than you actually are.

"What took you so long? We told you to be ready 3 minutes ago! You should know that you are never allowed to be late! It makes our entire family look bad!" cried his mother, furiously glaring at him.

"Sorry mum," muttered Sirius, looking down at the ground so that she could not see the humor dancing in his blue-gray eyes, he had been purposely late coming down just to annoy his mother, and the thought that if he was simply three minutes late he could bring shame to the entire family made him want to laugh as well.

"You had better be!" said his mother oblivious to the fact that Sirius was not at all sorry, "Now we shall be going to Diagon Alley by floo powder, we will go to the Leaky Cauldron. Sirius you will go first."

Sirius went and grabbed some of the green powder from the pot his mother was holding, walked over to the fireplace, closed his eyes and tucked in his elbows, than dropped the floo powder and yelled, "Diagon Alley!"

That was when the spinning sensation kicked in. He stopped abruptly and stumbled out of the fireplace, extremely dizzy from all of the spinning. If he hadn’t been so dizzy he might have entertained the thought of running off on his own, but father joined him not long after, than his brother, and lastly his banshee of a mother.

"Come on now, don't just stand there!" barked his father, straightening up and acting like the ‘true important pure blood’ that he was.

The Black family moved into the back room and his father tapped the wall three times. It soon opened into an archway that led into the busy street that was Diagon Alley. First the family went into the bookstore called Flourish and Blotts, which bore Sirius out of his mind; he was not in any way shape or form a reader, and he knew that going to school would not change that. Next they walked into the Apothecary, which amused him with a few items there, and he was immediately planning pranks that involved them. Then they went into a few random shops getting things like his cauldron and his telescope that he would need for Astronomy class. Next they went into Eeylops Owl Emporium to buy an owl. He picked a pitch black owl and decided to name him Artemis, though his family wanted to name him something completely different, he had tuned them out though so he was not quite sure what it was they wanted to name him. After he got his owl they went into the Ollivanders and they got his wand, which was Mahogany 11 and ½ inches, and pliable, and he was told it would be good for transfiguration, much to his parents disappointment, they wanted something that would be good for the Dark Arts. Lastly they went to get his robes, a squat lady fit him, and they bought him his school robes and a boring pair of plain black dress robes, he wanted to get a dark blue pair or maybe even red to really annoy them.

"Now that we have all of your school stuff bought we are going out to lunch with the Snapes, Malfoys, and the Princes," said his mother in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, "Sirius, I expect you shall behave, if you dare to misbehave then you will locked in your room for the first week that you are home for Christmas, do you understand me?"

"Yes mum," mumbled Sirius, knowing that this meant that he could not tell Lucius Malfoy, a fowl Pureblood boy a year older than him, that the food he was eating was actually an eyeball, but remembering this he had to smile, it was just so funny watching him spit out his food all over a very disgusted Mrs. Snape.

His mother saw his smirk and said, "You think I'm kidding do you Sirius?"

"Of course not mum," said Sirius, than under his breath he muttered, "You would not know a joke if it danced in front of your nose in a hot pink tutu."

"What was that?!"

"Nothing mother…"

"Good. Now we are here."

They had indeed arrived back at the Leaky Cauldron, which surprised Sirius slightly because it was not his family’s usual dining place. The Princes and the Snapes were already there, thankfully. He got along very well with the two Prince twins, Adaline and Adrian, but he did not get along as well with their grease slim ball cousin Severus Snape, he was just so fun to prank and make fun of.

"Sirius! You're finally here!" cried Adrian, running at him at full speed, her curly black hair flying out of the neat bun her mom made her wear, and pulling him into a huge hug.

"Hey Adrian."

"So what are the pranks for today?"

"None. The evil witch who calls herself my mother has forbidden me from doing anything by threatening to lock me in my room for my first week at home during Christmas Break, and we both know that she would do that…"

"Ouch…that means no pranks today, my stupid mother told me the exact same thing, but she did entrust Adaline with a bag of money, assuming she would not buy anything bad…so the two of us can sneak off to Zonkos buy some prank supplies for the school year…"said Adrian with a mischievous smirk.

"Will Adaline agree? I know that she does not always like our pranks…"

"She will, you know how boring these things are, she might get along with Severus, but she hates Malfoy as much as the two of us do, and seeing as to how Severus and Malfoy are almost joined at the hip at these little get togethers…"

"Very true, when do we leave?"

"After we politely excuse ourselves to go to that boring book store Flourish and Blotts. They will have Lucius and Severus come with us, Adaline will take them into Flourish and Blotts to distract them and we will run into Zonkos quickly, buy our stuff and I will have my house elf Sunny pick it up and bring it all to my room, then we shall run back to Flourish and Blotts and pretend we never left."

"Wow, you really thought a lot about this didn't you?"

"You know I did," she said with a chuckle.

They did not have to wait long for the Malfoys to arrive, and when they did the kids went shopping for 'books'.

"Lucius, Sev, come here and look at these books on the dark arts!" cried Adaline, pretending to be excited over them, when in truth she was absolutely appalled.

"That's our cue," whispered Adrian and they quickly ran out of the bookstore and into Zonkos.

In Zonkos they rushed through the shelves picking up random things that they thought would go well in a prank, it took them five minutes to pick everything that they wanted up and then they ran to the counter and paid quickly. Then Adrian called her and Adaline's personal house elf Sunny.

"Hey Sunny will you please take these bags into my room and put them into my trunk, but under all of my robes so that mother will not see them if she were to go through my trunk."

"Sunny will do whatever master and masters friend want her to do."

"Thank you Sunny!" cried Adrian as the house elf disapparated and the two of them sprinted all the way back to Flourish and Blotts.

When they got to the bookstore they walked inside and both picked up random books and started looking through them, though they were not paying any attention to them.

"There you two are! We have been looking for you two all over the store!" said Lucius angrily; Sirius could have sworn that there was steam coming out of his ears.

"Sorry Lucius, we were so engrossed in our books we did not look at the time!" lied Adrian smoothly while giving him a sympathetic smile (which Sirius thought looked more like she smelt something funny-probably Snape’s hair-so he made a side note to talk to her about it).

"Well lunch is going to be ready soon," said Lucius, walking (strutting) ahead with Severus, you would have thought he owned the place.

"That was a close one! I could only keep them distracted for so long!" said Adaline, though she was smiling.

"Sorry, we got a little carried away…"said Sirius, with a mischievous smile on his face.

"That's fine…" she said, rolling her eyes, knowing just how the two of them could be.

"You three hurry up!" yelled Lucius from ahead of them, they looked at each other and then ran to go and sit through a very boring lunch, Adrian and Sirius both planning what to do with all of the stuff that they bought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Here's chapter 3! I hope you are enjoying this so far! I love them when they are young and still don't have an entire war to face! The next chapter is when they leave for Hogwarts, so get excited! haha :)


	4. Chapter 4

Lily woke with a start, to her alarm clock beeping, in the most obnoxious way possible, and the worst part was it kept getting louder and louder. Hitting her alarm clock as hard as she could, Lily finally decided to get up seeing as it was 8 o'clock. It took her a moment to remember what day it was.  _I GET TO GO TO HOGWARTS!_  She thought excitedly, yet she was extremely nervous. She had never been away from her family for this long, much less in an entirely different world. She quickly went into the bathroom she shared with Petunia, and jumped into the shower, feeling slightly calmed by the warm water. She took a little longer in the shower than she normally would have, and when she got out, she wrapped her fluffy green bathrobe around herself and ran into her room to find something to wear, deciding that she would change into her uniform and her robe on the train. It took her five whole minutes to decide what it was she actually going to wear and finally decided on wearing her favorite pair of jeans, a darker wash, a lime green t-shirt, and a black zip-up sweatshirt, along with a black pair of black flip-flops, she would put her tennis shoes on on the train as well. Finally she decided the she would leave her bright red hair down and let it air dry into her natural waves that stopped just below her shoulders. After she was ready she neatly packed away her last minute things, which turned out to be quite a lot, into her trunk and started dragging it to the stairs. She was about to drag it down the stairs when her dad stopped her and told her that he would carry it down, otherwise the floors would get scratched up and her mother would throw a fit. She quickly grabbed some toast and put cinnamon and butter on it, then they were out the door and headed to Kings Cross Station. She and her sister were sitting in the back seat, Petunia glaring at Lily, and their parents in the front seat chatting, trying not to focus on the fact that they were sending their little girl off to a place they knew next to nothing about. After the hour and a half car ride they all got out of the car and got Lily a trolley to push her cart.

They got to brick wall that separated platforms 9 and 10, and she suddenly felt very nervous,  _what if she just ran and hit the wall?_  She turned and smiled at her family knowing that this is where she would need to leave them, well at least until Christmas break. Severus told her that Muggles could not make it onto the platform, when he was telling her about how to get on the platform.

She quickly grabbed her mom and pulled her into a tight hug, and her mother whispered in her ear, "Behave Lily and have fun. Don't forget to write, I want to know all about Hogwarts."

Lily gave her mom a teary smile and said, "You know I will mum."

Then she turned to her father and pulled him into an embrace and he whispered, "Have fun Lils."

"I will Daddy."

Then she turned to Petunia, who was looking around making sure that no one she knew was there, but when Lily tried to hug her sister she pushed her and said, "Don't touch me you freak! You might be contagious!"

Holding back the tears she gave her parents a final wave and ran right towards the wall, going right through it (much to her relief and her sisters disappointment) and stopping in front of a giant red train. She was in awe, and was sure that her jaw had dropped. It was beautiful. But before she could really look at it she realized that she had to get her trunk on so she rolled it to the side and started lifting it up, it was really heavy. She mentally cursed herself for packing so much.

"Here let me help you," said a taller boy with brown hair and blue eyes.

"Thank you!" said Lily in relief as the nice boy helped her get her trunk into a compartment where she would wait for Sev to come and join her.

"Thanks so much!" said Lily again.

"No problem, are you a first year?"

"Yes, what year are you in?" she asked knowing he was older than her.

"I'm a second year Gryffindor."

"Well thanks!"

"No problem, see you around," said the boy leaving.

                                             ***

Sirius Black woke up on September first extremely excited. Knowing that he would not need to see his horrible family until summer was enough to get him out of bed quickly and into the shower. After the shower he went into his room, and got changed into jeans and a black shirt. Then remembering he still needed to pack a lot of stuff into his trunk and quickly ran around his room and bathroom through everything messily into his trunk. After he put all of his stuff into his trunk he realized that his trunk would not close so he went and sat on his trunk and locked it shut. Then he dragged it to the stairs and pushed it so that it fell down three flights of stairs, just to piss his mom off. It worked.

"Sirius Orion Black!" screeched his mother angrily.

"Yes mother?" asked Sirius in an innocent voice, as if he hadn’t just done that on purpose.

"Why did you push your trunk down the stairs? Do you want to go to Hogwarts?"

"It slipped from my grip," he lied smoothly, trying to keep the smirk off of his face, "And of course I want to go to Hogwarts."

"Well hurry up and get down here so that you can eat breakfast!"

"Yes mother."

With that he allowed himself to laugh silently when his mother went back into the kitchen and he followed after he had gotten his laughter out.

"Here's a muffin. You need to eat in the car that the Ministry has provided your father with."

"Yes mother," he said taking the muffin and then he went outside and to where the Ministry car was, his father had taken his trunk out and put it into the car.

When he got into the car he found his father sitting in the front seat, soon joined by his mother and his brother sitting in the back, excited to see the platform for the first time.

"Sirius you will write to me won't you?" asked Regulus.

"Of course Reg. You are actually somewhat normal," Sirius said with a smile, he actually did like his little brother, and was hoping that if he talked to him he would not get corrupted by his family, though he knew that the chances of this were not very likely.

"And you'll tell me all about Hogwarts?"

"Yes."

"Are you excited?"

"Yeah I am."

The rest of the car ride went by as a silent affair. They got to Kings Cross Station in about an hour and they got a trolley and walked to where the dividing barrier between Platforms 9 and 10 and walked right through it. The sight he met made him smile. There were a bunch of people saying their goodbyes and he turned to his family.

His mother hugged him, but he knew it was just for the allusion of a loving family, she whispered into his ear, "Do us well in Slytherin. Behave."

His father pulled him into a hug as well, and he whispered, "Behave and stay away from all of the blood traitors and Mudbloods. Especially the Potters."

He then gave his little brother hug, promising to write to him. Then he ran off onto the train looking for a compartment. When he could not find an empty one he decided he would sit in the next one he found. That very one happened to hold a taller boy with messy black hair and hazel eyes.

                                             ***

Remus Lupin woke up with a start on the morning of September 1st. He would finally be able to go to school, and if he was lucky, he would even make friends. With him being a werewolf that concept was a bit tough, but at Hogwarts no one would know unless he told them, and he did not intend on telling anyone unless it was completely necessary. Sighing he rolled over and slowly got out of the warm cocoon that was his sheets and made his way to the bathroom where he showered and brushed his teeth.

Walking back to his room Remus got changed into kaki pants and a plain dark blue tee shirt. Then looking in the mirror he made sure that he did not look as sick, the full moon was two days ago and though he was almost recovered but he still did feel a little sick, he also checked that his sandy blonde hair did not look to messy, his mother would throw a fit if it was.

"Remus dear, are you almost ready? You need to eat your breakfast before we leave and we are leaving in a half and hour!" called his mother down the hall, in the kitchen.

"Coming mom!" cried Remus from his bedroom, then getting all the last minute things into his trunk, though it was not a lot considering he had started packing a week in advance, he was just so excited, then dragging it down the hallway and into the small family room, then walked through the little doorway and into the kitchen. Then he sat down at the little table and his mom brought him his plate of eggs.

"Thanks mom," said Remus, thankfully, just realizing how hungry he was.

"No problem Remus, you will need all of your strength for today so eat up."

"I know, thanks mom."

He ate all of his scrambled eggs, and even some seconds, and then the Lupin family was out the door. With in a half an hour they were at Kings Cross Station getting him a trolley to push his cart. They went right through the barrier and he quickly went and found an empty compartment and put his trunk in there, then he went out to say his goodbyes to his parents.

When he was back by his parents his mother pulled him into a hug, though not terribly tight so that she would hurt him though, and then said, "Behave Remus, and have fun dear. Remember, you do not have to tell anyone if you don't want to, and the Professors who know will not say anything."

"I know, thanks mum," he said with a sad smile, he would miss his parents.

Then his dad pulled him into a hug and said, "Behave son, and don't be shy."

"I won't dad," said Remus, then the train started moving, so with a final wave and grin at his parents he set off at a run and hopped onto the train.

Remus got back to his compartment quickly and opened the door to see a girl with light red, almost blonde, hair and piercing clear blue eyes, sitting in there looking out the window.

                                             ***

Lily did not have to wait long for Severus. He came in about five minutes after she had and was followed by a girl with curly black hair and blue eyes that had a little green in them.

"Hey Sev!" Lily said excitedly.

"Hey Lils!" he said just as excited, "This is my cousin Adaline."

"Hi," said Adaline, with a big smile showing off her perfect white teeth.

"Hey!"

Both Severus and Adaline sat down, and they started talking about random things like what books they had read about Hogwarts and what things they had heard, when a boy with long, really light blonde hair entered their compartment.

"Adaline, Severus! What are you doing sitting with a Mudblood? Come join me in my compartment! It will introduce you to the right type of people. The people who will be your housemates for the next few years of your life. You wouldn’t want your parents to know that you are associating with scum on the first day of school do you?"

"Yes Lucius…sorry…"said Severus, throwing Lily an apologetic look as he and the other boy left, though Adaline stayed seated with an appalled look on her face.

The light haired boy seemed to notice that Adaline had not followed him because came back and said, "Adaline come with me now or your mother will know that you were sitting with a Mudblood!"

"Tell my poor excuse of a mother, see if I care! I will not come with you! Now, Lucius, you are not welcome here, so I suggest that you leave."

With a final glare the boy whose name was Lucius left, Severus following him leaving Lily a little stung.

"I'm sorry about Lucius that was horrible to call him that name!" said Adaline, looking very upset.

"It's fine really; I don't even know what that means."

"It's a  _really_ fowl name to call someone who is Muggle born, it means dirty blood."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, some Pureblood families, like most of mine, think that they are better than everyone else because they are Pureblood. It's really stupid if you ask me. But Lucius' family, the Malfoys, are one of those families."

"Most of your family?"

"Yeah, Adrian, my twin sister, and I disagree with our family."

"I see, well, thank you for sticking up for me," said Lily with a sad little smile, trying to blink back the tears.

Severus had promised that she wouldn’t be looked down upon because she didn’t come from a magical family. He had lied knowing full well that she wouldn’t. It didn’t help that he was her best friend and he had just ditched her completely.

"No problem, so what class are you looking forward to most?" Adaline said, trying to change the subject since she didn’t want to see her new friend cry.

"Well, I think that they all sound really fun but Charms sounds really fun. What about you?"

"I think that Potions sounds like a lot of fun, but I agree they all sound like fun!"

They talked about random things for the rest of the train ride, both extremely excited for the feast to start. Though both secretly a little nervous about what house they would be in and if they would be able to fit in and make friends.

                                                      ***

"Hi," Sirius said, "Do you mind if I sit here?"

"Not at all," said the boy, so he entered the compartment and sat down.

"I'm Sirius Black. Who are you?"

"Hi Sirius, I'm James. James Potter."

"Well, that's great! I sit with the one person my family to me not to!" Sirius said with a smile, than added, "Though they should know by now that I don't listen to what they say."

"You like pulling pranks?"

"Do I ever!"

"Well I was thinking-"

"James Potter don't you dare finish that sentence!" said a short blonde haired girl with blue eyes who had just entered their compartment.

"But Alice!" whined James.

"NO! I will not let you get into trouble before we even get to school!"

"Please? I just wanted to light fireworks in the hall!"

"That would be a good idea," said Sirius with a smile, but he immediately stopped when he saw the look that the short blonde girl named Alice glared at him.

"No James! Did you not see the Head Girl? She looked like she'd ring the neck of anyone who put as much as a toe out of line!"

"Fine party pooper."

"That's what I thought. Now would you like to introduce me to your friend?"

"I'm Sirius Black, who are you?" asked Sirius.

"I'm Alice Prewett. Nice to meet you."

Before he could say anything else the door slid open again and he saw the familiar curly black hair and blue eyes that belonged to Adrian Prince.

"Hey Adrian!" he said with toothy a grin.

"Sirius Black I have been looking all over for you! And that is really hard when you are trying to avoid all of your cousins and annoying 'family friends'!"

"Sorry. Where's Adaline?"

"Sitting with that grease ball Severus."

"I see, well these are my new friends. Alice Prewett and James Potter. Guys this is my best friend Adrian Prince."

"Hey!" she said sitting down right next to him.

"So do you guys like Quidditch?" asked James.

Alice rolled her eyes but both Adrian and Sirius said, "YES!"

"Are you both going to try out for our house teams next year?"

"I am, I want to be beater," said Adrian with a wicked smile.

"Same here," said Sirius, with an equally wicked grin.

"I want to be chaser for my team!" said James and they immediately started talking about Quidditch, Alice had taken out a book to read, not very interested in Quidditch.

Their discussion did not last long before the compartment door opened yet again.

"Adrian, Sirius! What are you doing sitting with these blood traitors?" said the drawling voice that Sirius knew belong to Lucius Malfoy, "Come join me and Severus and the rest of our friends."

"I would rather not Malfoy, you are not welcome here, and neither of us wants to go and sit with you and your annoying little friends. And we are sitting here because we actually like them," snapped a glaring Adrian.

Lucius looked appalled and with a glare left their compartment, and Sirius and Adrian burst into laughter.

The rest of their trip went by un-eventful and when the time came the boys went and stood in the hall as the girls changed into their uniforms, and the girls did the same for boys. All excited to get to the feast for their own reasons. James Potter wasn’t nervous, his entire family had been in Gryffindor for years, he saw no reason why he would be different. Alice was hoping to be in Gryffindor because she knew that her friends would be there, but she also knew that her family would support her no matter what. Sirius and Adrian on the other hand, were feeling very similar emotions. They were nervous at the idea of being in Slytherin, but also nervous about not fitting in if they were to be anywhere else. To them, Slytherin was safe, it was filled with people they knew, people who would accept them (as long as they acted a certain way), and the same could not be said for all of the other houses.

                                             ***

The girl looked up at him and smiled, "Hello! I hope you don't mind me sitting here, everywhere else was full and James was getting on my nerves….poor Alice is stuck with him... I'm Gemma by the way."

"I don't mind," said Remus, smiling slightly the girl named Gemma's enthusiasm, "I'm Remus by the way."

"Well thank you Remus! Are you excited for class to start? What one are you looking forward to most? Do you like Quidditch? Do you want to play on your house team? What house do you want to be in?" she asked very quickly in one breath, getting red in the face.

Before Remus could answer all of her questions the compartment door opened once more and a pudgy short boy with blonde hair and watery blue eyes stepped in looking terrified.

"Oh…" was all he said when he noticed Gemma and Remus were sitting there, "Umm…Do you mind if I sit here, there are Slytherins out there and well…"

"Sure!" said Gemma, cheerfully, "I'm Gemma, and this is Remus!"

"Hi, I'm Peter."

"Do you guys want to play exploding snap?" asked Gemma, pulling out a deck of cards.

"Sure!" said Remus.

"I guess…" said Peter, still looking excessively scared and nervous.

And with that they played a few games of exploding snap, well until the food trolley came, Gemma squealed with excitement.

"I will have ten chocolate frogs, three boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and five Fizzing Whizbees!" said Gemma, very quickly and excitedly.

"NO!" cried Remus, "Gemma you do not need that much candy! You won't be able to sit through the feast!"

"Your point?" said Gemma with a wicked grin, then getting out her money and giving it to the lady.

"What about you two?" asked the lady kindly while Gemma dug into her candy.

"I will have four Cockroach Clusters and six chocolate frogs!" said Peter, looking slightly happier after their games and now that he was getting candy, then paying and taking his candy he started shoveling it into his mouth.

The lady then looked at Remus who said, "I will have two licorice wands, and three chocolate frogs please."

Nodding the lady gave him his candy and he gave her his money, then he slowly started eating his candy, unlike the other two.

After Gemma finished she started eyeing Remus' candy, Peter had already finished, and Remus seeing Gemma's look dove for his last chocolate frog at the same time as Gemma, though getting there first. Then he quickly opened and it and shoved it into his mouth with a grin, as Gemma pouted, then at the same time the two of them burst into laughter, Peter joining in.

When the conductor announced that they would be arriving soon they all changed into their uniforms, Gemma went into the bathroom. All excited, and Remus hoping that he would be in the same house as one of them.

* * *

So basically, I think that I am going to try and post 2 chapters everytime I update...but I don't know how well that is going to work for me! But I hope you're enjoying this! The next chapter is the sorting! 


	5. Chapter 5

Adaline and Lily got off of the train as soon as it stopped, and were immediately were lost in the crowd. They both exchanged confused and nervous looks. Neither of them knew where they were going.

That was until they heard a booming voice yelling, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

When the two girls pushed through the crowd towards the voice they were both amazed to see a giant man standing there holding a lantern with a small group of first years standing around him. Adaline could feel her jaw drop, and she knew that she must seem very rude, though looking around; she was not the only one.

"Adaline Hope Prince! What would our dear mother say if she saw you gaping like a fish?" asked a shrill voice, and when Lily and Adaline turned around they saw a girl with curly black hair and green-blue (though more green) eyes that were wide, she was the split image as Adaline only Adaline's eyes were more blue, and Lily knew that this must be her twin sister.

"I don't know Adrian, probably something along the lines of," said Adaline, with a small smile on her lips, and Adrian grinned as well, while Lily just looked confused, then she added in a shrill, arrogant sneer, "Adaline Hope Prince! What do you think you are doing? Young Pureblood ladies such as yourself should not be gaping like a fish!"

"You know, for some reason I don't see mother saying gapping like a fish," giggled Adrian, and all three girls laughed.

"Is that all the firs' years?" asked the giant, "C'mon, follow me!"

They followed him down a narrow winding path that was dark and slippery and most likely somewhere in the woods. Lily had to try very hard not to fall, being as clumsy as she was.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts soon!" called the giant man, who Lily thought she heard some boy call Hagrid.

They reached the end of the path and there were a lot of gasps. Hogwarts was beautiful. It was a castle that looked like it belonged in a fairy tale, with all of the towers, and windows.

"Alrigh' no more'n than four to a boat!" called Hagrid's booming voice.

Lily sat in a boat with Adaline and her sister Adrian, along with a girl with white blonde hair and blue eyes, and the Severus who gave Lily a sympathetic look, but did not talk, which hurt Lily a little bit. I mean they were best friends, right?

All of a sudden there was a huge splash, and when they looked back they could see a boat tipped over and four heads popping out of the water. The two boys were laughing and climbing back into the boat, while the other boy was glaring at him all so climbing into the boat, and then there was a girl who Lily recognized as Alice who was glaring at the two boys, though there was a little humor in her eyes. Lily was trying to suppress a giggle, though she was failing miserably and when she looked over at the other people in her boat and both Adaline and Adrian were shaking with laughter, but both Sev and the other blonde girl glared at the two boys that were laughing.

Soon they were arriving at school. Hagrid led them to two huge oak doors where a stern looking lady was waiting for them. She had black hair that was graying slightly and it was pulled back in a severe bun. This is where Hagrid left them, and the witch with the black hair led them into a side room with two doors, the one they came through and another one. Lily could here talking and laughter on the other side of it.

"I am Professor McGonagall. I am the Head of the Gryffindor House, I will be your Transfiguration teacher and I am Deputy Headmistress," she started, "Now, welcome to Hogwarts. The start of term feast will begin shortly. In a few moments you will enter the Great Hall, but before you sit down you will need to be sorted into your houses. While you are here your house is like your family, you will spend your free time in your house common room, you will sleep in your house dormitories, have classes with the rest of your house and next year you have the option of trying out for your house Quidditch team. The four houses are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. Any of your triumphs will earn you house points, and any trouble making will lose your house points. At the end of term feast the house with the most points will earn the House Cup. Now the Sorting Ceremony will start soon, I suggest you all make sure you look your bests. I will be back shortly. Please wait quietly"

And with that she left the room and Lily felt her nerves kicking in.

"Adaline, how do you get sorted?" asked Lily, “I don’t remember reading about it…”

"I don't know," whispered a terrified Adaline.

They waited the rest of the time in silence. Lily playing with her hair nervously until Professor McGonagall arrived back.

"We are ready for you, so if you would please follow me," she said, and all of the first years followed her into the Great Hall, all of them were looking around in amazement.

They all watched as Professor McGonagall brought a four legged stool out and set it down, then she put a beat up, and old looking hat on top of it. All of the first years looked at the hat confused while all of the older students gave the hat their attention. Soon, the first years realized that this was not a normal hat for at the rim of the hat a mouth appeared and the hat started to sing.

_"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I am the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw_

_If you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folk use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!  
You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_Fir I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

The entire hall burst into applause and all of the first years let out a breath that most did not know that they were holding.

"When I call your name you will come forward and try on the hat," said Professor McGonagall, "Black, Narcissa!"

Lily watched as a girl with bleach blonde hair that went down to her mid back walked up and tried on the hat, to barely touched her head when it yelled, "SLYTHERIN!" and she watched the girl smirk and walk over to the far left end of the room to the cheering table.

"Black, Sirius!" called Professor McGonagall and a boy with long shaggy black hair made his way forward, he was still dripping wet from falling into the river.

Sirius walked confidently up to the Sorting Hat and put it on his head, he then heard a voice in his ear,  _"Another Black I see, though you are different from the rest of them, Slytherin is not the place for you. Well, it better be_ GRYFFINDOR!"

Sirius walked to the table on the far right laughing at the short shocked silence, and the awkward applause. He could also hear his family booing and shouting blood traitor at him, but he did not care. Well, he wouldn’t as long as the Gryffindors accepted him, and if they were anything like James Potter (who according to his father seemed like Gryffindor’s poster boy) he figured he would be just fine.

There were a few other names, all getting sorted into Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw until "Evans, Lily!"

Lily nervously made her way to the front, sat on the stool, and placed the Sorting Hot on her head, and she could feel herself jump when she heard,  _"You have a bright mind, but what's this? You want to be in Slytherin? I'm sorry but Slytherin is not the right place for you. But Ravenclaw, you would do nicely there, but I think that you would do best in_ GRYFFINDOR!"

Lily shot Severus a sad little smile then ran over and took a seat next to Sirius. Where she listened to more students get sorted into Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Soon the name "Lupin, Remus."

And Remus walked forward, sat down and put on the hat,  _"Remus Lupin, I see desperation to belong, that would place you in Hufflepuff, but you also have a great mind, which would leave you in Ravenclaw, but I also see that you are very brave, and I think that you would do best in_ GRYFFINDOR!"

Remus smiled and made his way over to where the girl named Lily and the boy named Sirius were sitting and joined them, feeling thrilled that he was actually at school. Soon they had reached the name "Macnair, Walden" and another one of the boys walked up dripping wet, though he was not as confident as Sirius had been, and after a short period of time the hat yelled, "SLYTHERIN!" and he walked over to the far left side of the room. Next came the name "Pettigrew, Peter!" and Remus watched as Peter walked over to the chair, shaking.

 _"I see, you have a longing to have friends, but you do have a brave patch to you, which I suggest you try and use more often because you're in_ GRYFFINDOR!"

Peter smiled and made his way over to the other first years, grinning. Shortly after him came "Ryan, Gemma!" and Gemma walked forward, confidently.

 _"I see a lot of potential in you, you would do anything for your friends, and are extremely brave, and there really isn't anywhere else for you. You are a true_ GRYFFINDOR!"

And Gemma grinned then skipped over to where the Gryffindor first years were sitting. Soon after came the name "Snape, Severus". And Lily watch as her best friend made his way up to the Sorting Hat. As soon as it touched his head it called out "SLYTHERIN!" and he ran grinning over to the left side of the room without even a glance at Lily. Next came "Potter, James!" and James, who was still wet form tipping the boat, walked up to the Sorting Hat, confidently and with a huge grin on his face, knowing exactly where he was going to go.

 _"Ah, a Potter I see, well there really is only one place for you with your bravery and need to save people! It better be_ GRYFFINDOR!"

And James walked over to the other first year Gryffindors, grinning like a mad man. Then the name "Prewett, Alice!" was called, and Alice, still wet, walked nervously towards the hat, and put it on.

 _"Ah, very brave I see, you are desperate to do well, and would do just about anything for your friends or family. It better be_ GRYFFINDOR!"

And Alice skipped over to the Gryffindor table, happily. The next name was "Prince, Adaline!" and Adaline made her way nervously towards the Sorting Hat.

 _"Ah, another Prince, well there is only one place for you it better- wait, you are different than the others. You have a sharp brain that would do well in Ravenclaw, but you are very brave and will stand up for what is right and what you believe in, no matter what the coast. It better be_ GRYFFINDOR!"

The Hall erupted into another awkward applause as Adaline happily made her way to the Gryffindor table, ignoring the cries of her family and family friends calling her a good for nothing blood traitor, but she did not care, she was finally free. She only hoped that Adrian would get as lucky, though she figured that she would. "Prince, Adriana!"

Adrian walked towards the Hat, only a little nervous.

 _"Ah, I see you are more like your sister than the rest of the family, just without as mush of a desire to learn, you are very brave, and stand up for what you believe in, right or wrong. There is only one place for you and that's in_ GRYFFINDOR!"

Adrian smiled as she made her way over to the Gryffindor table, completely ignoring the harassing comments coming from the Slytherin table. Soon the last of the students were sorted and Professor McGonagall moved the Sorting Hat and the stool. And a man with a long silvery beard and long silvery hair, a nose that looked as though it had been broken numerous times that held half-moon spectacles and a pair of twinkling blue eyes behind them.

"Welcome to Hogwarts! I imagine that you are all hungry so I shall leave the announcements until after we have eaten," he said, and then he sat down and started eating the food that had just appeared.

Sirius and James were piling food onto their plates eating whatever they could get their hands on, Peter following suit.

"I can't believe it, I see you enough in the summer! Why, just why must the world torture me and have you in the same house as me?" asked Gemma in mock confusion.

"Because dear cousin, you would be lost without me!" replied James, then diving back into his food.

"No, that's not it…" laughed Gemma, and then she too dug into her food.

"I can never get away from your bickering can I?" asked Alice, with a huge smile on her face.

"Nope!" said Gemma, with a grin, and James just nodded.

Everyone had to smile at this little exchange, and they talked about random stuff throughout dinner, like how they knew each other. They were all stuffed when the desert appeared, and James, Sirius, Peter and Adrian immediately grabbed everything within reach, but everyone else just grabbed a few things, wondering where all of the food went in the others stomachs. They were all thin, but ate like a bunch of starving pigs, with the exception of Peter, but even he should have had more weight to him for the amount that he ate. Finally after they were all full and extremely tired Dumbledore stood back up.

"First years should know that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all students. Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you all that you are not allowed to use magic in the corridors between your classes. And last, but not least, anyone who is interested to play on their House Quidditch team should see Madam Hooch; trials will be held during the second week of school. Now let us go off to the nice, warm, cozy beds waiting for us. Goodnight!" Dumbledore said, and with that all of the students got up to make their way to their separate common rooms.

"First years follow me!" a voice bellowed, and they did.

It turns out the voice calling them belonged to a Prefect by the name of Jack. He led them through many of the schools corridors, up many staircases, even some that moved, until they arrived at a picture of a fat lady in a pink dress.

"Password?" she asked, which amazed Lily, Severus had told her that pictures moved, so that had not surprised her as much, but he had failed to mention that they could talk!

"Balderdash," said the Prefect as the portrait opened up to reveal what Gemma guessed was there common room. It was a round room with a warm fire and tons of squishy chairs and couches, along with tables where they could do their work.

"Now, girls you are going to go through the left door, and up the spiral stairs, your room is at the top. Boys you will do the same on the right. Your bags have already been brought up. Now, any questions?" he asked and when they all shook their heads he left them to go up to their dormitories.

In the girls dormitory there were five beds, Adaline's was closest to the door, then there was Adrian's, next was Alice's, then Gemma's, and Lily's was at the other end of the room. There was a door that led to a huge bathroom, and they each had a giant wardrobe where all of their stuff was already neatly put in. All of them changed into their pajamas, and then went to bed, too tired to talk to each other.

The boy's dormitory was the same as the girls only they had four beds instead of five. Peter was by the wall, and then came Remus', then James' and lastly by the door was Sirius'. They all stayed up discussing Quidditch teams and all fell asleep on their beds, fully clothed, and in Peter's case, in mid sentence.

The group of them had no idea how much they would some day depend on each other, how much they would need each other. They didn’t know about all the ups and downs that they would face. The fighting, they hatred, the love, the secrets and the deceit. Their lives would be full of turbulence and storms. This may be the calm before the storm, but unfortunately that cannot last forever. 

* * *

Here's the next chapter! If I have time another will be up later tonight when I get off of work! Enjoy! 


	6. Chapter 6

Lily woke up to someone shaking her, and when she opened her eyes they were met with a pair of huge blue orbs. Shaking her was what looked like some cross between a human and some other animal that she did not know, it had a huge eyes and bat like ears and was about 2 ½ feet tall and was wearing a smock with the Hogwarts crest on it. Lily screamed.

"Star is sorry to have scared you Miss, but Star needed to wake you Miss, otherwise you would be late to breakfast and Miss' first class. Star will bring Miss and Miss' roommates an alarm clock tonight," Star explained.

"It's okay, and thank you," said Lily uncertainly, still not quite sure what Star was.

As if to read her mind Star said, "Star is one of the Hogwarts house elves."

"Oh," was all Lily said.

"Now Miss should get ready and wake her friends so that they can get breakfast," said Star.

"Thank you Star, and please call me Lily," she said.

"You are welcome Miss Lily, Star was just doing her job," and with that Star was gone, leaving Lily to stare in awe in the place that Star had been.

"Lily, what's wrong?" asked Alice.

"A house elf, Star, just came and woke me, we need to get ready," said Lily, and with that the two girls woke up their roommates and then Lily went and took a quick shower, then Alice went, then Adaline, Gemma and last Adrian.

They quickly got dressed in their school skirts and blouses, and then they put their cloaks on over them, but did not button them up yet. They then started to race down to the Great Hall deciding that they would get their bags when they knew what classes they had that day so that they did not need to drag all of their books around.

"Um, does anyone know where we are going?" asked Lily.

They all shook their heads nervously, no one knowing which way to go. All wishing that they had been paying more attention last night when they made their way up to the common room.

                                             ***

Remus woke with a start; he saw a pair of blue orbs looking at him, "Hello," he said to the house elf.

"Hello," the house elf said, "Star is sorry if she scared Mr. but Mr. needs to get up because if Mr. doesn't he will be late for breakfast. Star will bring Mr. and Mr.'s roommates an alarm clock for tomorrow."

"Thank you Star please call me Remus."

"You are welcome Mr. Remus," said Star and with that she disappeared.

"Up!" called Remus to his roommates, this was met by grumbling so he added, "Time for breakfast!"

This worked, the other three were up very quickly after that, and after they were all showered they started to walk down to the Great Hall. They were only a short distance until they ran into the girls.

"Hey do you guys know the way to the Great Hall?" asked Alice.

"Um…no…" the boys said, shaking their heads, in truth they were hoping that the girls would know.

"The Great Hall is this way," called the kind second year who had helped Lily with her trunk on the Platform, "We could show you the way if you would like," he added and his friends nodded.

He was with a boy who was taller with black hair and green eyes, as well as a girl who was also taller and had black wavy hair and purple eyes.

"Thank you!" said Alice as the older students led them into the Great Hall.

"I'm Frank Longbottom," said the boy who had offered to show them the way, "This is Tyler Jones and this is Candice Meadows."

"I'm Alice Prewett, this is Lily Evans, Gemma Ryan, Adaline and Adrian Prince, and these are James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew."

"Nice to meet you all," said Candice.

"You as well," said Sirius.

Then they went in their separate directions to sit down. James, Peter, Sirius, Adrian and Gemma started piling everything onto their plates like they hadn't eaten a huge feast the night before, in fact it looked as though they had not eaten in days, by the time everyone was done with their first helpings of things they were starting their thirds.

"How much can you guys eat?" asked Lily, grabbing another piece of toast and putting strawberry jam on it.

"A ton!" replied Sirius, "Besides breakfast is my favorite meal."

Then Professor McGonagall came around with their timetables, which they all took excitedly, Peter, James, Sirius, Gemma, and Adrian even stopped eating their breakfast. She also gave them a sheet that said where each class was.

"We will all have the same schedules until third year, though it will change yearly," explained Alice, "Today we have Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws, then Potions with the Slytherins, next we will have lunch, and lastly we will have a double Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Wow, I am so excited!" said Lily, with a huge grin.

"How can you be so excited about school?" asked Sirius.

"Don't you want to know how to use magic?" asked Lily.

"Well yeah…"

"Well school is how we will learn, now let's go and get our bags; we will need a head start to our class, even with the directions."

Everyone else nodded and they made their way to the Gryffindor Common room, and shockingly they did not get lost on the way there. Once in the common room the boys and the girls went their separate dormitories to grab their bags, and then made their way down to the Transfiguration class room, only getting lost twice, so they got to class just a the bell rang, which was good because Professor McGonagall walked in a second after the bell rang.

"I will not tolerate any misbehavior in my class, this is one of the most dangerous things you will learn at Hogwarts and if you misbehave you will be kicked out of my class," said the strict looking Professor.

She then turned so that she was facing the desk that belonged to the four boys and transfigured it into a cat, getting many oohs, and ahs. Everyone was excited, but Lily was extremely nervous, would she ever be able to do that? She doubted it.

"Now, get out some parchment and a quill, you will be taking notes before you start anything."

Lily got out her stuff from her bag and when she looked back up at the chalk board and saw that it was covered in notes, which she immediately started to write down. When all of the notes were done they were given a match and were told to transfigure it into a pin.

By the end of class James, Sirius, Remus, and Adaline were the only ones who were actually able to do it. And Lily could tell that she was not going to like this class. After the bell rang they all ran off and tried to find the dungeons, they managed to find it very easily and did not get lost once. They made it to the classroom with about a minute and a half to spare. In the Potions room there could only be three people per table so James, Sirius and Peter sat at one table, while Lily, Adaline and Adrian sat at another, and in the table in front of them were Remus, Alice and Gemma.

About a minute after the bell rang Lily saw the pot bellied potions master walk through the doors. He was much less intimidating then Professor McGonagall, and had a smile on his lips revealing slightly yellowing teeth.

"Hello class, I am Professor Slughorn, and I will be your Potions teacher. Today I figured we would have a little contest and see what table could brew a simple sleeping potion; the table that brews their potion the most accurately will win their house twenty points. You can find this potion and how to brew it on page 27 of your books, any supplies you need you will be able to find in the back cupboard. Begin!"

For Lily's table Adrian went and grabbed the ingredients that were needed to brew the potion, Lily took out her book and opened it to page 27 like she was supposed to, while Adaline started the fire under the caldron and filled it with water. Then they all took turns in cutting, chopping, adding and stirring. After all of that was complete all that was left was to sit and wait for twenty while the potion simmered, just like the directions stated. They were the first ones done, and therefore had time to talk, it was silent when they were working unless they were asking to pass something or what the directions asked. The other groups weren't as successful.

Remus, Alice and Gemma soon figured out it was not as easy as it looked to brew a potion. Alice went to grab the ingredients, Remus took out his book and flipped to page 27 while Gemma lit the fire bellow the caldron and get the water, but on the way back she spilt the water all over herself and a very angry and very surprised Narcissa Black, causing Sirius to have a fit of laughter at his cousin, whom as he mentioned numerous times to the boys last night, he hated. After Gemma's many apologies, which Remus could tell were completely fake, because when she came back to the table she was biting her lip to control her laughter. After that their potion making was uneventful, other then the fact that they found out that Alice was terrible at potions. But eventually they were done and able to let it simmer for the time need.

At James, Sirius and Peter's table they were having a little bit more trouble. James got out his book and opened it to page 27. They then sent Peter to go and get the ingredients, and after three runs he finally had them all, and they were finally right. Then they realized that they hadn't gotten any water or started the fire so James went to get the water and Sirius lit the fire. Then they started to chop and dice all of the ingredients and add them when necessary, all was going smoothly until Sirius watched Gemma spill water all over his cousin Narcissa, and Sirius could not stop laughing for a good ten minutes, which meant that the stirring that he was supposed to be doing was not getting down, let's just say that they would be happy if their potion came out semi decent.

At the end of class Professor Slughorn walked around and checked every ones' potions, some were excellent, like Lily and Severus' groups, others weren't bad for a first try, such as Remus' group, then all of the other groups including Narcissa's and James' groups 'needed a lot of improvement'.

"I can see that I will need to pick where you sit, the next time we are in class you will be given assigned seats. You are dismissed," said Professor Slughorn as the bell rang, "And 20 points to both Gryffindor and Slytherin, both houses produced perfect potions."

With a smile the nine Gryffindors made their way to the Great Hall for lunch, or as Sirius said, "My favorite meal of the day!"

"Um, Sirius, I thought breakfast was your favorite meal…" pointed out Adaline with a smile.

"You should know, Adaline, he loves all food, no matter what time of day it's at, he just loves food, period," said Adrian with a smile.

"Exactly!" said Sirius, then taking off running at full speed towards the doors to enter the Great Hall, leaving his friends laughing behind him.

When the others entered the Great Hall they found Sirius already had a mountain of food on his plate. They all just shook their heads and started piling food onto their own plates.

"Hey there Sirius, Adrian, Adaline, it's nice to see the three of you joined me in Gryffindor!" said a voice from behind.

"Andy!" cried Sirius turning around to face the one cousin of his that he could stand talking to.

Andy was the one cousin that he liked. Well, kind of cousin, she was disowned about two years ago in her 4th year when she started dating Ted Tonks, a Muggle born, and  refused to dump him, saying they were in love.

"Hello," she replied, "How do you like it here so far?"

"Love it! No annoying family, okay, that's a lie, this place is crawling with my siblings, but still, no annoying parents telling me what I can and can't do," said Adrian.

"I know exactly what you mean, I felt the same way," said Andy, "Okay, well I need to go I told Ted I would eat outside by the Lake with him today!"

And with a final wave Andy left. Leaving them to continue to dig into their food until the bell rang telling them to head off to their final class if the day, Defense Against the Dark Arts. They made their way quickly to their classroom and when they got there they found a petite witch with dark brown hair sitting behind her desk.

When the bell rang their Professor stood up and said, "Hello class, I am Professor Patil. In this class you will learn how to defend yourself from the Dark Arts, and how to battle with an opponent, you will learn to jinx people as well as disarm them, along with learning how to block spells that are sent at you. But for today we will be taking notes, so please get out some parchment and a quill."

And for the rest of the class period they took notes, as well as the one after it, which the boys, excluding Remus, found excessively boring (Remus only found it boring). And they were all relieved when class ended. All of them making their way to the common room where they would relax and talk until dinnertime.

* * *

WOO! Here's thw second chapter of the day! Though I've changed my mind, I think I'm going to do one a day, at least until I've finished a few chapters of the next one! I hope you are enjoying this because I am enjoying going back and fixing it! 


	7. Chapter 7

When the Tuesday morning post arrived, all of Lily's friends received letters from their parents (though Sirius, Adrian and Adaline's were all in one), James, Peter, Remus, Gemma, and Alice all got ones saying how proud their parents were that they were in Gryffindor and that they knew that they would do well there. Sirius, Adaline and Adrian on the other hand were a completely different story. They received a red letter, and all eight of them, minus her, stared at the letter like it was about to explode at any second, which confused Lily,  _I mean really can a piece of paper really explode, well, maybe in the Wizarding Word,_  she thought, well she found out about a minute later that it did indeed come pretty close to exploding.

 ** _"Sirius, Adaline, Adriana! We cannot believe that you three could ever disgrace your families as much as you have by being in Gryffindor! We are ashamed of you! And if we feel it necessary we will pull the three of you out and you will be your way to Durmstrang before you can say disgrace! We will talk to you three about your punishments when you are home for break! You will be coming home,"_** it screeched then burst into flames, casing everyone in the Hall to look at them, and Lily realized why they were all looking at it like it was about to explode, though Sirius, Adaline, and Adrian seemed to find it funny because the three of them where on the ground practically crying of laughter.

"W-What was that?" asked Lily, in complete shock, and appalled by what it had said.

"It was a Howler," answered James, and nothing more was said.

Shortly after that they got ready and left the Great Hall to get to class.

It was Friday the first year Gryffindors were sitting happily by the Black Lake, Gemma and Adrian sitting in the tree dangling their feet, James, Lily and Sirius sitting against the tree, Lily squished in the middle, and Peter, Alice and Remus were sitting hanging their feet off of the small wooden dock. All were talking and laughing, just enjoying each other’s company as well as the bright sun. They had become great friends over the course of the week, though they did argue over the stupidest things sometimes, they would always find ways get over it. Each of them happy about making new friends, for Alice, Gemma and James it was about people liking them for themselves, not their parents glorified reputation; for Remus, Lily, Adaline, Adrian, Peter and Sirius they were just glad to fit in, to be loved and to have people accept them, though Remus wasn’t so sure that would continue once they found out what he was…well, if they found out.

But at the given moment Lily was just happy it was Friday, and she knew all of her friends were to, especially considering that they got the entire afternoon off.

"We should go and explore the castle! The only places we've been are the ways to get to the Great Hall and all of our classes," offered Peter.

"We could," said Sirius, but with a mischievous smirk he added, "Or we could pull a prank…I mean we've been here a week and haven't done anything…"  
"I like the way you think," said James with a smirk very similar to Sirius'.

"What would we do though?" asked Gemma.

"We could set off fireworks in the Great Hall, it might not be original, but it'll work, it could be like a warm up prank, and we could do something bigger next week," said Adrian.

"That could work," said Remus, though he was hoping that he wouldn't get caught, he knew his parents wouldn't be happy about that, especially when he was so lucky to be able to attend the school in general, but his new friends didn't know that.

"I think it's a good idea, but we don't have any fireworks…” said Lily, thinking logically, ignoring the part of her that was screaming to stay out of trouble.

"Yeah we do," said Adaline, "Sirius and Adrian stocked up while we were in Diagon Alley. They left me alone with our stupid 'friends' for five minutes, which is bad believe me, Severus isn't bad until he's around Lucius, the pair of them together is torture…"

"Hold a grudge much?" asked Sirius jokingly.

She glared back at him and muttered, “I’d like to see you try and do it…”

Sirius decided to ignore that comment while Adrian burst into a fit of giggles.

"Alright, looks like we have a plan, but if anyone asks, I wasn't here," said Alice and with a confused look from her friends she added, "What? I promised James' mom that I wouldn't let him get into to much trouble, she'll ground me, yes, sadly our families are that close, sometimes I practically live there. Like last summer, I spent an entire week over there because it was too hot and his pool was open."

Everyone just gave her an understanding nod when she said this and Remus even gave her a sympathetic pat on the back when she said that she practically lived at the Potters sometimes. Which caused all nine of them to burst into hysterical laughter, and then they got up and ran to the Gryffindor common room, which was currently, and surprisingly, empty and got the fireworks.

After they picked out which ones they wanted to use Lily asked, "So, when do we want to do this?"

"How about at dinner?" offered Adrian, "They come with a self timer, and can be invisible until they go off, so if we go and position them now all we'll need to do at dinner is press a button."

"Okay, sounds like a plan to me!" said Sirius, and before anyone could stop him he started running towards the Great Hall, everyone getting up and racing after him.

They positioned the fireworks in random places in the Hall where they thought they would be seen the best, and they were all excited when dinner came. They never thought that 6:30 would come; it was then they decided Sirius could hit the big red button.

When 6:30 finally came Sirius hit the red button and all of the fireworks went off, lighting up the whole Hall in multi colors, even the teachers (minus McGonagall) were watching them. They made many shapes, most were loins, they had to show their house spirit, others were snitches, and brooms, along with many other objects from the Wizarding World. The fireworks went off for about five minutes and when it was done everyone clapped, minus all of the teachers other than Professor Dumbledore (this they all thought was kind of strange, but they we too happy to dwell on that). And they clapped along with the crowd, as to look innocent, but they knew that they would not get into trouble for setting them off. No one could prove it was them.

They were sitting in the first year boys' dormitories talking after dinner, complementing their own work, and they stayed up late into the night, talking about their week and what some future pranks could be, and eventually they all fell asleep, the girls still in the boys' room.

Saturday came, and Lily was sitting out by the lake with Severus, Adaline was going to join them later, she was going with Adrian and Sirius to send Howlers back to their mothers. Lily didn’t think that this would help the situation, but they were all dead set on ‘sticking it to them’ no matter what the consequences.

"Hey Sev!" said Lily happily, deciding to ignore the fact that she was still angry at him, it was the first time all week that they were really able to talk and she didn’t want to ruin that.

"Hi Lils," he said.

"How was your first week?"

"It went well enough. Yours?"

"It was great! I love all of the people in my House, they’re all so nice and very funny!"

"I'm not sure about the boys in your house; they seem kind of mean…"

"Their not Sev, their just having fun."

"Hey Lily! And Lily's friend," said a voice from behind them.

"Hi James!" said Lily happily, "This is my best friend Severus Snape. Sev this is one of my new friends James Potter!"

"Hi Severus," said James politely.

"Hi," said Severus, a little less polite, who was a little angry that James had disrupted his time with Lily, whom he had had a long crush on, not that he had told her so, of course.

"Do you mind if I join you? Oh, and Adaline told me she would be out soon."

"Not at all, and okay," said Lily.

"Severus, what are you doing hanging around with a Mudblood and a Blood Traitor?" came the voice of none other than Lucius Malfoy.

The second he called Lily a Mudblood, James had jumped up and was ready to defend his friend, and he would have gone up and punched him if Lily wasn't holding onto his arm and telling him not to.

"Umm…" was all that Severus could reply.

"You should come over and hang out with your fellow  _respectable_  Purebloods."

And with that Severus got up and went over to hang out with the other Slytherins, leaving Lily slightly hurt, but really angry.  _Just when we were finally going to hang out he leaves, he told me that I would be no different than everyone else just because I was Muggle born, and here he is going against his words, and only in the first week of school,_ she thought bitterly.

And with that Lily walked into school with James and when she entered the common room she found that Sirius was skipping around the common room, earning him many weird looks from anyone else.

"Why is he so happy?" asked Lily to Gemma.

"WE GET TO START FLYING LESSONS THURSDAY!" she screeched, clearly very excited, and with this news Lily's mood raised, and the rest of the first years joined in Sirius' skipping, well, that is until one of the older students yelled at them for disturbing his homework time.

 


	8. Chapter 8

The week went by extremely slowly for James, and when Thursday came he could not have been more excited. First, they were going to get flying lessons that day, not that he needed them, of course, he was more excited for the fact that he was going to be able to fly again, though he supposed that he was also excited that they got that Thursday afternoon classes off, which meant no Defense Against the Dark Arts, not that he didn't like that class, it was just nice to not have it.

While he was bouncing off of the walls with excitement, Lily was nervous, she was not the biggest fan of heights, though over the summer Sev had told her that she would love it, that calmed her down a little bit, but she was still nervous.

Adaline was excited, she loved to fly, it was her, Adrian and Sirius' way to escape everything that was happening with their families, and it was like freedom. All three of them were excited to be able to get back onto a broom.

Remus had only flown a few times because when he was younger his parents spent most of their money trying to find him a cure, he knew that his dad felt guilty that he was bitten because if he hadn't made Fenrir Greyback mad, Remus wouldn't have been bitten, but Remus didn't blame his father, it was his fault he had gone outside, no one else’s. Though a year ago they bought him one, not the best one, but still a good one and he had enjoyed it a lot. It was easy to forget about things while you were flying.

Peter was nervous, his mother was always too strict to let him have a broom, she was always to afraid that he would fall off, so this would be his first time, and he really didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of his new friends. Though, his father would tell him that he’d make a fool out of himself anyways.

And Gemma, well Gemma was almost as excited as James was, she had been ridding a broom ever since she could walk, most of the time she flew it was with James and Alice, both of which she learned to fly with.

Soon the group of Gryffindor first years were making their way out side and down to the Quidditch Pitch, James and Sirius were practically skipping there. Though they immediately stopped when they realized that they were going to be learning to fly with the Slytherins, the only two people that seemed slightly excited about this were Adaline and Lily, they were going to be able to learn with Severus! Once every one got there a lady with short, spiky gray hair and yellow eyes that resembled a hawk walked onto it. With a flick of her wand about twenty brooms showed up in two neat lines, the Gryffindors took one side and the Slytherins the other.

"Alright I am Madam Hooch and I will be teaching you how to fly," she said, "Now I want you to put your right hand over your broom and say 'up'."

And that was what the class did.

"Up!" said James and his broom came flying into his hand immediately, and when he looked around he realized that he was the first one to get it, this put a cocky grin on his face.

It took Sirius only two times to get his broom to come up, as well as Alice, Gemma, Adaline and Adrian. Lily's broom came up after the fifth time she said, which was pretty good because only about half of the Slytherin class was able to get theirs up. And Finally Peter was able to get his up on the seventh try, and much to his delight he had beaten some of the Slytherins. And shortly after Peter got his up the others started getting theirs up too, and soon everyone's brooms were in their hands.

"Okay, when I blow my whistle I would like you to kick off of the ground, hard, and stay in the air, only a few feet off of the ground, and then lean forward to come back down, any questions?" she asked, in a voice that was almost daring them not to listen to her, "Okay on my whistle."  
And she blew her whistle, and soon everyone was up in the air, most were wobbling slightly, including Lily and Peter. Though Severus was as well, and he was actually doing worse than both of them. They did this about five times, that's how long it took for them to steady their brooms, and then she told them to fly all the way up to the goal posts. This scared Lily out of her mind, being afraid of heights and all, but when she finally got up there she realized she really liked the view, and that maybe flying wasn't so bad after all.

Once they were all level with the goal posts Madam Hooch shouted, "Now, I want you to fly from one end of the pitch to the other, and then back again!"

And that is what they did, well, Walden Macnair fell of his broom, but Madam Hooch caught him and he was now sitting in the stands, watching, the rest of them fly, full of jealousy. Sirius could have laughed at the sour look on his face.

And after that they were done, and Lily was surprised at how much she had actually enjoyed it, while Peter was surprised that he didn't fall behind too much. Everyone else was excited for next year when they would be able to bring their own brooms to school.

"We should go out to the Pitch and fly around this weekend, as long as no one’s practicing that is," offered Gemma, while they were eating.

"That would be fun!" said Lily, "I'm going to go and write to my parents! They'll want to know all about Hogwarts and flying, oh my goodness they are going to be so exciting about the flying!"

And with that Lily left the Great Hall, and Sirius said, "I should probably go write to Regulus, and let him know what it's like here at Hogwarts," and at the questioning looks of his friends, because he had been complaining about his family for the last week, "I actually get along with my brother, I am trying to uncorrupt him. Maybe I can keep him normal, ya know?"

"Oh," said James in understanding, "Well I know that I could write to my parents, what about everyone else?"

And everyone else nodded, and they left and joined Lily in the common room, no one talking, all telling their families about school, or how their weeks had been. It took them all an hour to write.

"Okay, who else needs to go to the Owlery?" asked Lily, thinking that she would need to buy an owl for next year, or maybe even for Christmas.

"I do," said Remus and the two of them left for the Owlery.

Everyone else went up to their dorm rooms to get their owls.

"So who did you write to?" asked Adaline to Arian.

"Henry, you?"

"Same," at that they laughed Henry was their normal brother, but his twin sister Abigail was completely evil, she was their mom's evil minion, and she was only seven. Henry was their brother who was almost as ashamed of their family as they were, he was just much more secretive about it than they were. He preferred to have his nose in a book and to stay out of other peoples business, the two sisters were both secretly hoping that their brother was sorted into Ravenclaw when he came because that would allow him to avoid most of their families wrath.

And after everyone sent out their letters they went back to the common room and played exploding snap. Adaline won every time, eventually everyone quit and started to do homework, or in the case of Sirius and James they were playing chess.

"You know what we should do tomorrow after our classes get done?" asked James.

"What?" said Lily absentmindedly.

"We should go swimming in the Lake, we always sit by it, so why not go swimming?"

"That could be fun," said Lily, grinning.

"Let's do it!" shouted Gemma, and the entire common room went silent and stared at her, and then went back to their talking, or doing their homework.

So Friday afternoon they all ate their lunch then went up to their dorms to get ready. James was wearing dark blue swim trunks; Sirius was wearing red ones, Remus was wearing green ones, and Peter was wearing light blue. Lily was wearing a green swim shirt (t-shirt) and a pair of gray swim trunks, Gemma was wearing a blue tank-kini, Alice was wearing a pink tank-kini, Adaline was wearing a purple one, and Adrian was wearing a yellow swim shirt, and black swim trunks.

"Come on! Let's go down and meet the boys!" said Alice, and with that she and Gemma skipped down the stairs, well as much as they could going down stairs, all of the girls following them, laughing.

When they got down the stairs they found the boys standing there already changed, so they made their way down to the Lake, Alice and Gemma still skipping, though they now were dragging Peter and Remus with them, who both eventually started to skip as well. Adaline took out her camera and took a picture of them skipping down to the Lake and when they got there they ran at full speed down the dock and jumped in, James and Sirius were the first ones in. They spent two hours in the water, splashing each other and playing different water games, whether it was Muggle or Wizard. And when they got out the were freezing, and they realized that they had left their towels in their dormitories, leaving them to run through the castle, dripping wet and freezing cold. They were not surprised that they got some pretty weird looks while they were doing this, but none of them cared. They were having so much fun, enjoying their innocence.

No one noticed the greasy haired boy, watching from a distance, full of jealousy of a certain black haired boy, knowing that he could have join in the fun if he wanted to, but his other friends would not have liked it. He knew that one day, he would need to make a choice, the girl he knew he had a really big crush on, who also happened to be his best friend, or his family. He also knew that the choice would not be easy and he was hoping that it wouldn’t be anytime soon. He wasn’t prepared to make the decision; he knew it would change his life forever. He had a feeling he knew the choice he would make and he really wished he had the strength to make a different one.  


	9. Chapter 9

It was Sunday and Lily had promised Sev that she would meet him in the Library so that they could work on their homework, mainly Charms, Sev had no idea what was going on in that class, and it was one of her better ones (she secretly wondered what his Slytherin friends would think about him needing help from a ‘Mudblood’). When she got there she found him sitting at one of the desks in the very back of the room, his Charms book open.

"Hey," she said with a smile.

"Hi," he said, smiling.

"How was your week?" she asked.

"Fine," he said, knowing that she might not really like the details about what he did, "Yours?"

"It was good, yesterday we went swimming in the Lake, it was a blast, you really should hang out with us sometime Sev, I think that you would have so much fun!" she said, happily.

Severus highly doubted that he could get along with any of them, he could see the way James looked at her, and he did not like it, "Why don't we try and work on the charm, I can never seem to get it right in class."

"Okay, we will go over the wand motions first, take your quill and follow along. It's swish and flick," she said, demonstrating with her wand, as he followed along with the quill, it took them a few tries until he got the motions right, then she told him, "Now do that while saying wingardium leviosa."

Finally he got her quill to rise for a couple of seconds so they decided to work on the six-inch essay that they had to write. It only took Lily a half an hour to write and Severus was done shortly after.

"Let's go for a walk," said Lily and Severus nodded so they walked out onto the grounds, "So Sev, what are your friends like?"

"I don't know how to describe them, they are the same people I grew up with, family friends," he said.

"Oh," said Lily a little disappointed with his answer, "Do you think I could hang out with them with you sometime? I would like to get to know your new friends."

"I don't think that you guys would get along well," said Severus, knowing full well that they would hat her because she was Muggle Born.

"Why not?" asked Lily getting a little angry, she definitely had a redheads' temper, which was not always good, it had cause her and her sister to get grounded one too many times.

"Because-" Severus was spared to try and figure out a lie because at that moment he was pushed into the lake and by the sound of it Lily was too.

"JAMES!" screeched Lily, though she was smiling as she got out and chased him around outside, eventually catching him and giving him a big hug, getting him wet as well, Severus did not find it nearly as funny.

"Hey! What was that for?!" he cried, angry.

"It was a joke, you were so close to the lake James and I couldn't resist," replied Sirius, from his spot on the ground where he was laughing.

"Well, I don't think it was very funny!" said Severus and he marched off towards the castle.

"What has his knickers in a twist?" asked Remus, causing the four boys to laugh, and Lily to smile before she ran after her friend.

"Hey Sev! Wait up!" she called, running after him at full speed, he stopped and looked at her, she could tell he was angry, "Sev, don't be mad, it was a joke besides I was kind of hot anyways, and I am wearing short sleeves and shorts, while you are wearing long sleeves and pants, you must have been hot too."

"So? They should not have pushed me in!" he said, "They can be so mean, why don't you see it?"

"So they’re mean because they pushed you into the lake?" she said, her anger flaring up again, “It was a harmless joke Sev! Where did your sense of humor go? You would have thought it was funny if we had done it to Tuney!”

"Friends don't push each other into the water, much less people they don't know! Besides! It’s completely different! I don’t like Petunia, she was mean to me, she would have deserved to be pushed into the lake," he said, knowing his excuse was pathetic, but he couldn't explain why he hated them, at least not to her, so he stalked off, this time she did not come after him.

“It is not that different! At least what they were doing was friendly, what you wanted to do was not!” She glared before stalking out.

Lily walked back to the lake where the four boys were sitting and said, "Please don't push Sev in the water anymore, he did not like it at all…"

"No guarantees," said Sirius, smiling.

Lily rolled her eyes, knowing this was the best she would get, she had only known them for three weeks and she already knew that they would not listen.

“I’m serious though, please don’t…he’s my best friend from home and I can’t stand to loose him…”

“Fine,” James said, giving Lily a slightly sorry look.

Sirius on the other hand muttered quietly under his breath, “I don’t understand why…”

                                                      ***

It was Monday and the first year Gryffindors and the first year Slytherins were sitting in the dungeons for potions. The ingredients were on the board and they were told that they had to make the potion, so the three girls at Lily's started chopping up ingredients, and adding them when needed, as well as stirring.

"This is an easy potion," said Adaline, slightly bored, potions washer best subject.

"I agree," said Lily, potions was her second best next to charms.

"I don't," said Adrian, who was not very good at the subject, but since she was a Prince Professor Slughorn loved her, along with Lily and Adaline, but they both were good at his class.

"We know," said Adaline with a smile.

"Well, let's see how your potion turned out," said Professor Slughorn, whose pot belly ended up right next to Adrian's head, so she turned and made a face of disgust to Sirius, who was laughing at her, along with Peter and James, so she stuck her tongue out at them, "It is perfect, like always, ten points to Gryffindor.

At Remus' table, he and Gemma were doing all of the work because every time Alice tried she would mess up their entire potion, so she basically cut up a few ingredients and sat back and watched, making funny comments about it the entire time. Remus was really good at potions, and Gemma was not that bad, well not as bad as Alice at least.

"I think we finished!" said Gemma, happily, throwing her arms in the air, and in the process almost knocking over their potion.

"Careful!" said Remus, "And I don't think we are, our potion is light blue not navy like it's supposed to be."

"I think that it's more of a medium shade blue," said Alice tilting her head to the side to look at it.

“Maybe if you squint…” Remus said, rolling his eyes while Alice just shrugged.

"Do we need to change the potion?" whined Gemma, "I mean, at least it's blue, Narcissa Black's is puke colored."

"Here let's add this to it," said Alice, and before she got an answer she picked up a handful of knotgrass and threw it into the potion, then quickly stirred it in.

"Alice!" Remus and Gemma cried at the same time, and all three of their eyes got wide as the potion started to bubble.

The potion never overflowed though and when they looked down they were amazed to find the potion was indeed navy blue. The three of them held in the laughter because Professor Slughorn had just come over to look at their potion.

"This potion is perfect," he said in shock, "Ten points to Gryffindor."  
Once he left the three of the burst into laughter.

"Hey maybe I should do that more often," said Alice, joking.

"NO!" cried Remus and Gemma, then the three of them erupted into even more laughter, getting glares from the Slytherins in the class, and funny looks from their friends.

James, Sirius and Peter were not very good at potions. Sirius was decent, James wasn't good and Peter, well Peter was worse than Alice. So when their potion did not turn out just right it did not surprise them, but it did surprise them when they saw Professor Slughorn walk over and it started to bubble, and eventually explode, all over them. It stung, they could feel the boils growing, everywhere.

"Tsk," said Professor Slughorn, "Five points from Gryffindor, and you three should go to the Hospital Wing."

With that the three boys raced out of the classroom and to the Hospital Wing, leaving the Slytherins laughing, but none laughing as hard as Severus Snape.

They arrived in the Hospital Wing and the nurse, whose name was Madame Pomfrey rushed over and showed them where to lie down and started to get the potions for them to drink. "I apologize, but you will need to let them pop, and all I can give you is this potion to help with the pain a little bit," she said apologetically, "What happened to cause you to get all of these?"

"Potion gone wrong," mumbled James, letting out a yelp in pain when one of his boils popped.

                                             ***

"Severus, why did you think what happened to James, Sirius and Peter was so funny? That looked like it would hurt!" said Lily, she was mad at her best friend for laughing, when just a few days before he had been complaining about what they had done to her.

"Because Avery, Macnair and I decided it would be funny to put some random items in there, and that's what happened," he said, still laughing slightly, “Come on Lils, it was funny! It was just a little prank!”

"Why? They haven't done anything to you, so why are you so mean to them?! You don't even know them!" she said, she was beyond furious, this was not her best friend.

"They pushed me into the lake Lily! This is payback!"

"What they did was a harmless joke this was just mean! They could have been seriously hurt! Did you even think about that?" she said and with a final glare she walked off to charms class, wishing she could go and make sure that her friends were ok, she could not believe that Severus could be so mean.

She was so angry with him that she just ignored his calls from the other end of the corridor. If he continued to act like this she wasn’t sure she wanted to be his friend anymore.  


	10. Chapter 10

Peter was able to get out of the Hospital Wing that Wednesday, and James was able to get out on that Thursday, but Sirius who had been in the middle and endured the worst boils of the three was stuck in there until Saturday. The girls and Remus would come and see the three of them at least twice a day, normally they would bring their homework, though they knew that they would most likely not do it, and if they did that would mean that they were extremely bored, because, really, who would want to do homework?

Lily had taken up ignoring Severus, and she had gotten pretty good at it. She was so mad at him. How could he possibly do something like that? James and Sirius had only pushed him into a lake, and he did like the water and he knew how to swim, so she saw nothing wrong with that, but what he did was just cruel, he gave the boys boils, everywhere. Besides, he hadn't known what it was going to do either, it could have been so much worse. She did not know when her friend had gotten so mean, but she had a feeling it had to do with his other friends. So she decided that she did not like them, but she knew that eventually Severus would come around and realize what he did was wrong, and when he did she would stop ignoring him.

That Saturday when Sirius was finally able to get out of the Hospital Wing the group of first year Gryffindors decided to go outside because it was really warm and sunny and they all knew that the lovely weather wouldn’t last. Lily had to pile on the sunscreen so that she would not burn, like she always did, while Gemma just shrugged her shoulders and hoped for the best. They were all sitting around by the tree that was near the lake. Lily was replying to the letter her mom and dad had sent her, telling her that everything was good, and that they had some good news to tell her at Christmas time. Adrian, Adaline and Alice were playing exploding snap, and like always, Adaline was winning. James and Peter were playing Wizard Chess, and Remus was trying to tell a distracted Sirius what they had learned while he was gone, and trying to help him with his homework. As you can imagine, it was failing miserably, but Remus was persistent.

"Hey Lils, can I talk to you?" asked a voice from behind her, and she knew that that voice belonged to none other than Severus Snape.

"Okay," she said, knowing that he was finally going to apologize, though she did not know why he was talking to her, when he should be talking to her friends. She followed him to the end of dock and the two sat down, Lily putting her feet in the warm water, "What?"

"Look, Lils, I'm sorry, I did not know that that would happen I swear," he said looking at his friend with sad eyes, "Besides I was dared to do it by Amycus."

"Still Sev, you did the dare, you acted on your own free will, you could have just said no," Lily pointed out, "And it ended up harming my other friends."

"I'm sorry Lily!" he said, hoping that she would forgive him, he had missed his friend the past couple days, and he added, "I'm trying to fit in!" even though the knew that it was partly a lie, he already did fit in there, he was just trying to gain there trust, because after Adaline, who was one of his best friends, was sorted into Gryffindor they wanted to know how he would react, and when the time came, if he would switch sides. Especially since they had started noticing his friendship with Lily, which they didn’t approve of, at all.

Lily looked at her friend trying to see if he was actually sorry, and eventually deciding that he was, she said, "Its okay, but you need to apologize."

"I just did," he said.

"Not to me you moron! To James, Sirius and Peter!"

"Fine," he grumbled, but not happily.

"Good," she said, smiling, knowing that she had won.

"Hey guys," said Adaline from behind them, and coming to sit next to Lily on the dock.

"Hi Adaline," said Severus and Lily.

"So Sev, how are you enjoying Slytherin?" she asked, but more so to see what they had been doing, she was curious, her family had yet to have hexed her for not being in Slytherin, though Henry had told her that they were beyond furious, and she knew that she would be in trouble the next time she was home.

She also knew that sending the Howler didn’t help the situation, so she was assuming that she would be lucky if she saw the light of day over Christmas break…or ever. Knowing Adrian and Sirius they would get in a lot more trouble, something she wasn’t really looking forward to. Unfortunately for her, controlling the pair of them was much harder than one would think, and most of the time she was the only one out of the three of them to think logically through things. She quickly shook her head, and turned towards her cousin to listen to what he had to say.

"Yeah," he said, leaving it at that because he knew what she wanted to know, but he also knew he would be in a lot more trouble if he told her.

"So what are they saying about how much of a traitor I am?" she asked curiously.

"I haven't heard anything," he lied, and all three of them knew that was a lie, even Lily who had just met Adaline a few weeks ago knew that that was untrue, and that her family would be angry with them, and that she would be in major trouble.

"So did you win exploding snap?" asked Sev, quickly changing the subject since he didn’t want to start another fight for lying.

They just didn’t understand that he couldn’t tell the truth, he couldn’t say anything. If he told them it would make his housemates think that he was siding with them, and the next 7 years of his life would be hell. He wasn’t prepared to do that, and Adaline knew that. She knew that he wanted so desperately to fit in, to be accepted, so she wasn’t at all surprised when he straight up lied to her. She was just hoping that she could keep him in the light, away from all the lies and the cruelness that their families surrounded themselves with. Lily on the other hand didn’t understand any of this, so she just assumed that he must have had a good reason for lying, especially if Adaline accepted the answer. She just wished she knew what was going on.

"Doesn't she always?" Lily said laughing, shaking off the feeling of being left out of the loop.

"Yes," Adaline said laughing, “it’s a strange talent of mine.”

All of a sudden there was a screech and a huge splash from behind them and they turned around to see that a very angry Adrian and a even angrier Alice were in the water, while James and Sirius were standing on the shore laughing hysterically, not even noticing Remus and Gemma coming up behind them and when they finally did, it was to late, they were already in the water. Gemma and Remus looked at each other and gave each other a high five, then jumped in as well.

"Want to join them?" asked Adaline.

"Let's go!" said Lily and her and Adaline stood up.

"No thanks," said Severus, and he got up and walked away, starting to hate the first year Gryffindor boys for stealing his friends away from him.

Adaline and Lily looked at each other and shrugged, then they jumped in off of the dock, laughing, and they swam over towards their friends.

"Severus didn't want to join us?" asked Sirius.

"Nope," said Adaline.

"Figures, he never does, does he?" he said

"Pretty much," said Adrian.

“I know, I wish he would, maybe than he'd-" Adaline started, but whatever she was about to say was cut off when James came over and dunked her.

When she got up she gave James her best innocent look and swam over to James, who instantly swam the other way, knocking over small Alice, who was still angry about being pushed in in the first place.

"James Potter watch where you're going!" she said, and then she dunked him, laughing.

"Alice!" he cried as Alice and Adaline shared a high five, laughing, and shaking his head, he really should have known better.

"James!" she cried, coping his tone of voice.

"What did you do that for?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe because you pushed me in!" she laughed, giving him her best playful glare.

"So?"

"So? I didn't want to get wet."

That was when Adaline got her revenge, she lunged at James, and pushed him under the water, but as he was going under she also grabbed a very unsuspecting Peter, who had just swam over to join them. That was when the chaos started; everyone was dunking each other, and getting on teams, which ended up being girls against boys. The girls eventually won, but the boys claimed that was only because there were more of them. They stayed in the lake until the sun started to set, and after they had all showered dinner was over.

"We could try and find the kitchens?" offered Gemma.

"Okay, do we know where it is?" asked Remus.

"Well our other cousin, Alyssa, who graduated last year told us how to get in, and where they are, we just need to find them," said James.

With that they set off to find the Hogwarts kitchens, hardly talking because they were all so hungry and wanted to eat. They walked out of the Great Hall, and went down the stairs and eventually ended up in front of a picture of fruit, well, after quite a few wrong turns but they decided to ignore that fact, just happy to have succeeded.

"Didn't she tell us to tickle the pear?" asked Alice, who was there when Alyssa had told her cousins about the kitchens (though that wasn’t surprising, she considered Alyssa family too).

"Yeah," said James, who put his hand up and tickled the pear, which giggled, and then the portrait opened up revealing house elves working hard on washing the dishes from dinner.

"Hello," said Star, the house elf that had woken them up on their first day, "How can we be of assistance to you?"

"Can I get some mac-n-cheese?" asked Alice.

"Of course Miss!" Star said happily.

"Me too please, Star," said Sirius, with Lily nodding in agreement.

"I'll have some cheese pizza," said James, with Peter and Gemma nodding in agreement.

"I'll have waffles with chocolate chips," said Adaline, grinning.

"I'll have pancakes with chocolate chips, and then strawberries on top, along with a lot of whip cream!" said Adaline.

"I'll get a turkey sandwich," said Remus, who was starting to feel sick, the full moon would be that Tuesday, and he was not looking forward to it, so much could go wrong, but he was trying not to dwell on that.

"Of course!" said Star, and she ran off to help all of the other house elves prepare their meals, which were done within five minutes, and eaten within ten.

"I am so glad we found this place," said Sirius.

"Me too," James agreed, and then to Star he asked, "Can we get some chocolate cake please?"

"Of course!" she said, and raced off and when she came back she had a huge chocolate cake that had at least three different layers.

"Thanks Star!" said Lily, grabbing a fork and just sticking it right into the cake, taking out a huge chunk and shoving the entire thing into her mouth, "Yummmmmm!"

The others quickly followed suite, it took them about seven minutes to finish the cake, and when they let the house elves insisted on giving them more food to take with them.

                                             ***

That night the five girls sat on Lily's bed and talked, getting to know each other better. They were starting to realize that even though they were all fast friends, and had been living together for the past few weeks, they didn’t know that much about what their lives were like before they had all come to Hogwarts.

"So Lily what's your family like?" asked Adrian, curious to know what it was like to live a Muggle life.

“Well, I grew up with my parents and my older sister. My parents accepted me for what I am, thankfully. After we found out that I was a witch they laughed about how they always knew I was special ever since I was little and I jumped off the swings in the back yard and flew. It used to be my favorite thing to do, my sister, Petunia used to find it kind of funny. But she was incredibly jealous when I found out I was a witch and she was just a Muggle…we were best friends, even though she was two years older than me. When Sev came into the picture she instantly hated him, but after the mater that I found out about me being a witch she despised him and blamed him for taking me away from her. Sev just told me that she was jealous…” Lily said, feeling upset about her sister, but also slightly shocked that she had just spilled that.

“What do your parents do for a living?” Alice asked, she had always wondered about what Muggle jobs were like.

“Well, my mother is a nurse and my father is an accountant…” Lily said, not really finding anything interesting about her parents’ jobs, she was curious about her friends lives in the Wizarding world, “What about your guys’ families?”

"Well, my family, other than a rare few, are absolutely terrible. They believe that pure bloods are better than everyone else and that anyone who isn't should belong in the Wizard World. We have a lot of brothers and sisters, we have about four older siblings and three younger ones, it goes Alexander, Annabeth, Heather, us, then Henry and Abigail are twins, and then there is Jamie. Alexander is married to Juliet Malfoy; Annabeth is in her fifth year here and Heather her third. Henry and Abigail are nine and Jamie is five. Henry is normal, Heather and Annabeth, aren't great, but they are not the worst, Alexander is horrible, so is Abigail, and Jamie is to young to tell," she explained in one breath, Adaline nodding her head in agreement, "What about you Alice?"

"Wow that was incredibly quick and straight forward. Well, my mom is a Healer and my dad works as an Auror, they are wonderful and I love them to death. I have an older sister named Marie, she's in fourth year. She is nice and we get along for the most part, but when we don't, it is scary, and we end up not talking for a week. At that point our parents lock us in a room together until we apologize. We were once locked in there for an entire day… Oh, I also have an older brother who graduated a last year, he is in training to become an Auror, he has his own flat where he lives with his girlfriend, and she’s studying to be a Healer. And I just really hope that they get engaged soon…and have lots of little babies… And then I suppose we have the Potters and the Ryans, who are practically my family for the amount of time that I see them," said Alice getting off on little tangents.

"What about you Gemma?" asked Lily, noticing how differently her friends told their stories.

"Well, I have a seven year old brother named Jake, and my parents are always at work, so I don’t see much of them. They love us…they’re just always busy…I have quite a few cousins, so I will only name a few. There is James, and then there is Alyssa, and her brother Jasper. Both graduated last year, then you have Jessica, she's a goody two shoes, she's in her fourth year here, though she's in Ravenclaw and well on her way to being Prefect, if she doesn’t become Head Girl I think she’ll throw a fit. She has two younger brothers Eric and Jeff, both are in their third year and in Gryffindor," she explained, in a little more detail than Adrian, but much shorter than Alice.

“Well, what about favorite colors?” Adaline said, knowing that it was something simple and silly, but curious nonetheless.

“Green!” Lily instantly said, while Alice screamed, “Pink” and Gemma screamed “Blue!”

“I like orange!” Adrian said, “but you knew that, and your favorite color is purple.”

“Well, who was your first crush?” Alice said, giggling.

“Mine was the neighbor boy Frankie, he was a year older than me with bright blue eyes and blonde hair…I thought he was perfect. He used to push me on the swing and come swimming with Petunia and I…but he moved away shortly after my 8th birthday. I think he went to America…” Lily trailed off with a small smile, she wouldn’t admit it, but sometimes she wished she could know what he was doing now and what he would think about her being a witch; he used to love watching her jump off the swings.

She wondered if he would have gotten along with Sev or if he would have sided with Petunia. She assumed that Severus wouldn’t like him though, he was one of the coolest kids at school and he loved to run and play sports, something Severus really hated.

“Earth to Lily!” Gemma said, giggling.

“Oh sorry…” Lily said, turning scarlet.

“You should tell them about your first crush Adaline…” Adrian said, smirking while her sister glared.

“Okay, now you have to tell us!” Alice said, nearly bouncing up and down in excitement.

“Sirius…” Adaline mumbled into her hands.

“Wait, what was that? I thought I heard Sirius,” Gemma said.

“You did!” Adrian said with glee, “At age five they were going to get married! But then Sirius decided that he liked Elizabeth Malfoy, who was visiting for the month, leaving my dear sister heart broken…”

“Then I grew a brain and realized how disgusting that would be…” Adaline laughed.

“I can’t believe you like Sirius…” Lily chuckled.

"Okay, now I'm tired," said Alice yawning, "This has been wonderful…but let's sleep."

Everyone agreed, and they rolled over, all still on Lily's bed, or the floor and fell asleep. Each of them happy to have a group of friends that they fit in with and who accepted them. 


	11. Chapter 11

All too soon the first full moon of the year came around, and Remus was nervous. Well, nervous was an understatement, but he couldn’t think of another word to describe it because he felt so sick, and with knowing this, he knew that it would not make his transformation any easier, in fact, he knew that it would only make it harder on him. Something he was not looking forward to because they were already bad enough. He was so nervous that he ended up going into the Hospital Wing the night before, and when he saw the look of pity that the medi-witch, Madame Pomfrey gave him he decided that it would be easier if he just pretended to be sleep. But soon it was 8 and they needed to make their way to the Whomping Willow, where he knew that he would be spending the rest of his painful night. When they got there she took the stick out from behind the bush and pressed it against the one knot in the tree, and it immediately stopped waving it's branches around becoming still as she walked him towards the passage.

"This is where I will leave you, I will be back here at dawn tomorrow morning to pick you up, any questions?" she asked.

"No," he said and then he made his way down the dark tunnel, alone, knowing he was in for a long night, he could faintly hear her yelling her good luck and he could practically taste the sympathy from her words.

He was thankful though; thankful that she wasn’t repulsed by him, and was showing him kindness, no matter how much he hated the sympathy. Before he knew it the moon was coming up and he was getting sicker by the second, and then it hit him like a bullet, the searing pain shot through his entire body and he could feel all of his human instincts going to the back of his head while the wolfish ones were trying to take control.

He tried fighting it, like he did every time, wishing that one moon he would beat it, one moon he would be cured and never have to turn again, but the more he fought the harder the wolf fought back. In an instant all his human instincts were gone, and he was one with the wolf, no longer in control. He felt the need to claw everything to pieces and the desire for human flesh driving him to try and escape. He scratched at the old wooden walls, which proved to be stronger than the appeared, trying to break free before he took off and destroyed the room, before turning the pain towards himself.

                                             ***

Madame Pomfrey came to pick the boy up and dawn, and could not help but feel more than little sorry for him, that he needed to go through this once a month, when she had gotten there she immediately knew that it had been an extremely long night. She walked in and found him lying on the floor, he looked like he had been attacked, then she reminded herself, that he pretty much had, only it had been from himself. She had gotten him up to the school quickly without anyone seeing and then laid him on the bed while she took care of his wounds, then, all that she could do was to wait for the poor boy to wake. She wondered briefly if he could remember anything from the night before, and immediately hoped that he couldn’t. From what she had read the entire thing was incredibly painful and torturous, and she didn’t think and 11-year-old child should have to deal with those memories and those thoughts. It would be enough to drive someone insane, something she did not wish to see happen to the sweet young boy lying in that bed. 

Remus woke up and knew instantly from the pain that was all over his body that it had been a rough night, if not the worst one since he was bitten. He looked down at his arms to see that they were all bandaged up for him, just like his mom used to do it. That brought a wave of homesickness with it, but the more the thought about it, the better this was. His mom no longer needed to be burdened by him for most of the year; she needn’t worry about patching him up while his father sat by blaming himself.

"How are you feeling?" asked the medi-witch, with a look of concern on her face, shaking Remus from his thoughts.

"Terrible," he muttered, not even trying to lie.

"Here take this, it is a pain killing potion, I don't know how well it will work, but it shall have to do until we can figure out what will work," she said, handing him a glass with a yellowish potion inside, that he noted smelled almost as bad as it tasted, "Now, try and get some more sleep."

And he did as she said.

                                             ***

Before anyone knew it, it was the weekend of their first Quidditch match, which was, as always, Gryffindor verses Slytherin. Each of the Gryffindor first years were extremely excited, though each for their own reasons. James and Gemma were excited because they loved the game and both were planning on trying out for the team next year. Lily wanted to see the match because she wanted to see what Quidditch was actually like, her friends had all tried to explain it to her, and she figured that this would help her learn about the game. Adrian, Adaline and Sirius were excited to watch the match to see their family loose and to be able to rub it in their faces and they all loved the game. Alice was excited because she loved the game, though not nearly as much as everyone else and she figured she would not have liked it and been so intense about it if she had not grown up with James and Gemma.

So when everyone got up the cool October morning everyone put on their Gryffindor shirts and a pair of jeans, then they all put red and gold face paint on.

"Lily you are so lucky that you have red hair! It is the perfect house spirit!" said James, “Maybe for one of the matches we can all dye our hair red like Lily’s!”

This caused Lily to laugh. When the Gryffindor team came into the Great Hall they were booed by the Slytherins but cheered on and encouraged loudly by the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and the Ravenclaws. And when the Slytherins came in only the Slytherins cheered, everyone else booed, well, Lily did not, she just sat there quietly, but at how loudly Sirius, Adaline and Adrian were booing, it did not really matter.

"Why aren't you booing Lils?" asked Adrian.

"Because, it is not really nice, and Sev is in that house…"

"Please, they are all complete jerks," said Sirius.

"Severus really isn't that bad," defended Adaline.

"Severus is like a little-" started Sirius, but he stopped in the middle of his sentence because of the death glares that he was getting from Adaline and Lily.

"Let's get going to the pitch, that way we can get good seats!" said James, quickly trying to ease the tension.

"Okay!" said Sirius and the two practically ran out of the Great Hall, earning a few funny looks, their friends just followed behind them walking at a normal pace.

"Took you guys long enough!" said Sirius when the rest of them arrived; people were starting to fill into the stands now.

"That would be because we walked here at a normal pace," said Lily, grinning.

"Stupid normal people…" grumbled James, smiling.

"You do realize that you are out numbered by the 'stupid normal people' don't you?" asked Remus.

"Oh, umm…" he said, realizing that what Remus said was indeed true.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WELCOME TO THE FIRST QUIDDITCH MATCH OF THE YEAR! GRYFFINDOR VERSES SLYTHERIN!" cried a voice that belonged to a Hufflepuff whose name they did not know, "NOW LET'S WELCOME THE SLYTHERIN TEAM! (there was a lot of booing when he announced this, in fact everyone but the Slytherins, and a few selected students were not, and this time, even Lily was booing) "PLAYING KEEPER WE HAVE LUCIUS MALFOY, PLAYING CHASERS WE HAVE BELLATRIX BLACK, ANTONIN DOLOHOV AND THORFINN ROWLE, AS SEEKER WE HAVE AUGUSTUS ROOKWOOD AND PLAYING BEATER ARE EVAN ROSIER AND THEIR TEAM CAPTAIN GREGORY WILKES! NOW WELCOME THE QUIDDITCH PITCH (this was met by cheering from three of the four houses on the pitch, if someone were to just walk by they would have thought that there was an expulsion) FOR CAPTAIN AND CHASER WE HAVE KEN WILLIAMS AND HIS TWO OTHER CHASERS CANDICE MEADOWS AND BEN BELL AS KEEPER WE HAVE FRANK LONGBOTTOM AS BEATER WE HAVE TOD WOOD AND JUSTINE WALTERS AND AS SEEKER WE HAVE BRITTANY WELTS!"

"I want a nice clean game from all of you!" said Madame Hooch, who was reffing this match, "Now captains shake hands,"

Gregory and Ken shook hands, but both were squeezing the other's hand unnecessarily tight, you could tell they hated each other from up in the stands, and Lily couldn’t help but wonder why the two houses hated each other. Then the match began and Lily was instantly distracted.

"BLACK WITH THE QUAFFLE, SHE PASSES IT TO ROWLE WHO PASSES IT BACK- BUT WAIT, MEADOWS INTERCEPTS IT! SHE'S HEADING DOWN THE PITCH, BUT A NICELY AIMED BLUDGER THAT WAS HIT BY ROSIER HITS HER AND SHE DROPS THE QUAFFLE RIGHT INTO DOLOHOV'S HANDS, WHO TAKES IT DOWN THE PITCH AND HE SCORES DUE TO A BLUDGER HITTING LONGBOTTOM, KNOCKING HIM OFF OF HIS BROOM. 10-0 TO SLYTHERIN. WITH LONGBOTTOM STILL OUT BLACK SCORES AGAIN! MEADOWS WITH THE BALL NOW, SHE PASSES IT TO BELL, WHO PASSES IT BACK AND MEADOWS SCORES! 20-10 TO SLYTHERIN!"

This was how the game went, and it lasted at least two hours.

"IT LOOKS AS THOUGH ROOKWOOD HAS SEEN THE SNITCH HE GOES INTO A DIVE WELTS RIGHT BEHIND HIM, BUT ROOKWOOD GETS THERE FIRST. SLYTHERIN WINS 300-100!"

There was a loud groan that rippled through the crowd and cheering from the Slytherin section, though that was pretty much drowned out by the groaning. At the end of the game Lily decided that she really liked this game, and she even thought about possibly trying out next year. She might be able to get over her fear heights to play the game, and she was sure that her friends would be willing help her out.

When the first years got back to their dorm, Lily soon discovered the importance of Quidditch because all of her friends, other than Alice, were sulking, so Alice and Lily decided to go to the Library to work on the potions essay that Professor Slughorn had assigned them.

"How long do you think that our friends will be in a bad mood?" asked Lily, not quite that into the sport yet.

"That depends on how quickly they can get distracted," said Alice.

"Do you think that pulling a prank on the Slytherins would help?"

"Definitely, but I thought that you were friends with one of them, Severus is it?"

"Yeah, but hearing what some of them were saying as we were coming off of the pitch were totally uncalled for, they have it coming, besides, I don't need to do anything to him," she said with a wicked grin, "I was thinking that they deserve a nice little gift..."

"Lily Evans I like the way that you think!" she said, her grin was matching Lily's wicked one.

And with that they continued to plot, thinking about how proud of them their friends would be. The two sweet ones of the group plotting to prank the Slytherins. Lily decided that they were corrupting her in their ways, while Alice just laughed about looks being deceiving.

* * *

Sorry I haven't updated these past few days! I've been busy! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and as a warning I will be out of town this weekend so I will probably not update! Sorry! 


	12. Chapter 12

The Wednesday following the match was Halloween and Alice found out the hard way that all of the statues and suits of armor were charmed so that they could attempt to scare the students.

The group of Gryffindor first years had been walking to breakfast when one of the suits of armor suddenly grabbed her wrist, needless to say, she screamed, loudly along with jumping about a foot in the air. This happened to catch the attention of two Slytherin boys in second year, which laughed and pointed at a very embarrassed Alice.

"Shut up! It really isn't that funny!" said James instantly sticking up for his friend, though if they hadn’t been there he probably would have been on the floor dying of laughter.

"You're right it wasn't funny it was hysterical!" one cried, still laughing, in fact he was laughing so hard he was grabbing his side and looked like he was going to fall over.

"I clearly remember you doing the same thing last year Crabbe, in fact I recall your scream was quite girly," said the Frank Longbottom coming up from behind them.

That shut up the one named Crabbe.

"Yes, but you see, it's even funnier when it happens to a blood traitor like her," said the other.

That was what put everyone over the edge. Alice stood there about to cry and bright red with embarrassment. Everyone else just looked extremely angry, and Lily was the first one to react. She walked over to where he was standing, and knowing that he could beat her in a duel, she punched him with all of her strength, which as it turned out was quite a lot, right in the nose. That shut him up, and his eyes widened in shock, but to the surprise of everyone he had kept his mouth shut. Lily soon found out why.

"Miss Evans!" came the stern voice of Professor McGonagall, "That is a detention! I will expect to see you in my room on Thursday at 7 o'clock."

"Yes Professor," said Lily, not even attempting to argue, because she knew that punching someone was wrong…even if it was provoked.

"But Professor-" started Sirius.

"I would advise you to keep your mouth shut Mr. Black unless you would like a detention as well!"

"But-" started James started.

"Guys don't, it doesn't matter," said Lily, knowing that she would not get out of her detention even if they pleaded, in fact, it would give everyone else one as well and Lily did not want that.

With that Professor McGonagall left.

"Thanks Lily," said Alice, sniffling.

"No problem Alice," said Lily, smiling.

"I'm sorry you got a detention. I'll go and explain what happened to Professor McGonagall."

"Don't. I deserve the detention, I did punch him."

"But Lils..."

"It's fine Alice. Besides, it felt amazing!"

That caused all of them to laugh.

"Yeah, I really bad for anyone who has to be on the other side of your punch!" said James, not knowing that one day he would be on the other side of them many times, "You can hit!"

For the rest of the day they were all extremely cautious of all of the statues and suits of armor. And they later found out from Frank that Goyle, the Slytherin that Lily had punched, had spent the day in the Hospital Wing for a broken nose. That little piece of information had lifted their moods significantly. And soon it was dinnertime for the students, and they couldn’t wait to see what Hogwarts had in store for them.

When the first year Gryffindors got into the Great Hall they found that it was completely decorated in full out Halloween stuff, they even had bats flying around the ceiling and carved pumpkins with candles in them for the lighting. Also the food was even better then every other night, which was a very challenging thing to do, and there was even more of it. And if they thought that the dinner was good, well the desert was even better. It was a mixture between Muggle and Wizard deserts and candies, which made everyone but the Slytherins happy, Lily and all of the other Muggle borns in particular.

"Holy cow Lily! Can you have anymore desert on your plate? I don't think that I have ever seen your plate that full!" said Sirius.

"Shut it! You have more than I do!" said Lily, smiling.

"You guys are all going to be sick tomorrow…" said Remus, looking at all of his friends plates and seeing that they were all full of junk food, and when he looked down at his own he realized that his plate wasn't any better, "I take that back we're all going to be sick tomorrow."

At that they all laughed.

"I don't care this stuff is delicious!" said Alice, "I really like the Muggle candy!"

"I can owl my mum and see if she can send us some," offered Lily.

"YES!" cried Adrian, earning many funny looks from people in the Great Hall.

"Okay, next letter I send I will ask for some."

"Thank you!" said Gemma, “I could almost hug you right now, how are you so skinny when you grew up eating all of this?”

“I was only allowed a few pieces a day…” Lily replied, “My mom was insistent that my sister and I had healthy diets…”

“I am so sorry!” Alice said, and they all laughed.

Dumbledore interrupted them when he stood up and addressed the Hall, "Now that we have all stuffed our stomachs to the fullest, I would say that it is now time for bed. Good night."

With that they all headed up to their dorms where they were so full that they went straight to bed. None of them looking forward to their classes tomorrow.

At first the next morning they were al incredibly hyper, bouncing off of the walls and going crazy. That is, until their second hour class, this happened to be Charms. They started to feel sick, and James and Peter actually got up and left for the Hospital Wing, and Alice, Adrian and Sirius were soon to follow. Gemma left in Transfiguration, literally looking green. Lily, Adrian and Remus being the good students they were refused to leave during class, but during lunch they went to the Hospital Wing to get the potion to help their stomachs. All three of them refused to skip their Defense class where all they did was take notes, just like every other day.

After all of their classes Adaline and Remus went upstairs to go to bed, but Lily went to the Library, knowing that if she laid down, she would not be able to get back up for her detention. When she got to the Library she took her normal seat in the back of the room where Severus joined her.

"Hey Lils," he said smiling.

"Hey Sev, did you enjoy the feast last night?"

"Yeah, did you?"

"Yes! I was thrilled that they had Muggle candy."

"Yeah, I didn't get to eat any, it would have made me look bad…" he said, "Hey, I heard you got a detention…"

"Yeah, I punched a kid, I think his name was Goyle, for making fun of Alice," she said grinning.

"Really? He didn't mention that. And is Alice the short hyper blonde?"

"Yeah she is," she said smiling, "Oh my gosh! I need to go and get to detention! Catch you later Sev!"

"Bye Lils," he said, as he watched his friend race out of the Library with a smile on his face.

Lily ran to the Transfiguration room and opened the door, arriving right on time.

"Good evening Miss Evans, tonight you will be writing the line  _I must not punch another student_ about 250 times, is that clear?"

"Yes Professor."

"Good, you may take a seat, there is parchment and a quill on one of the desks."

And with that Lily set to work thinking that she got lucky and that all she had to do was write. She was back and in her dorm asleep two hours later.

                                                      ***

November flew by quickly. Lily and Adaline had to make sure that they split their time equally so that they could hang out with Severus, who refused to hang out with James and Sirius and all of their other friends. And soon it was December and the sign up sheets were out for who was staying at school that year for Christmas break.

"So is everyone going home?" Lily asked her friends while they were sitting in the common room one night working on homework, okay Lily, Adaline, Remus, Peter and Alice were working on their homework everyone else were doing nothing.

"Yes!" said Alice excitedly, James, Remus, Peter, and Gemma nodding enthusiastically.

"Sadly, mother sent us a letter this morning threatening that if we did not go home that over the summer when we had no choice but to go home or we would not see the light of day at all," said Adrian.

"My mother said just about the same thing, but she added that she would come up to the school and get me if I did not go home, then I would spend all of break and summer locked in my room," said Sirius.

"That stinks," said Gemma, "Will they let you guys come and see us?"

"I'm not sure…" said Adaline, knowing full well that the answer would be no, but she didn’t want to get her friends hopes down, "I hope so, otherwise I will probably sneak out if they don’t let us…"

"Agreed," said Sirius, and Adrian nodded.

"I hope you can too, my mom said that you guys could come over that Monday and spend the day with us, girls you can spend the night if you want," said Lily, hoping that they would say yes.

"I'll ask!" said Remus, thankful it wasn't that Thursday because that was the next full moon.

"I will too, I'm sure it's a yes though," said Alice.

"Me too, and a night without James, Alice! Won't it be lovely!" said Gemma.

"YES!" Alice shouted.

"Hey!" said James, with a look of mock hurt on his face.

"I mean…" said Alice grinning.

"Allie, you know that you love me!" he said.

"Ha, you wish," she replied, grinning and sticking her tongue out at him.

"I'll owl you and let you know," said Adaline, and everyone nodded, "Wait who am I kidding, if I can't I'll be there anyways, though I probably won't spend the night if that's the case…"

"I really would hate for you to sneak out and get into trouble…" said Lily, she didn’t quite understand how their families were, but she knew that if they were to get caught they would get more than a simple yelling at.

"Don't worry about it," said Adrian, "They wouldn't even know that we were gone. I promise!"

"Okay…" she said still uneasy.

The rest of the weeks till break went by extremely slow, to slow for every ones liking, and eventually it was the Friday afternoon that they would finally be able to go home for break. It was 10 minutes until the carriages took them the Hogsmeade Station to be exact and all of the girls were downstairs in the hall putting their trunks in a pile, which the Prefect assured them would magically transfer into their compartment on the train, this just made it easier for everyone, and he assured them that they would be able to lift their trunks because they had been magically altered so that they were lighter so that they could get them off of the train with out a problem. This took a huge relief off of the first year girls' shoulders. They didn’t think that they would be able to get the trunks off themselves, much less all the way towards their parents.

But while the girls were waiting peacefully in the Great Hall the boys were up in their dorm trying to figure out how on earth they were supposed to get all of their stuff into their trunks. They had procrastinated a little bit….

"What are we going to do?" asked a desperate Peter, noticing that they had only 10 minutes to get their trunks packed and all the way down to the Great Hall.

"The only thing that we can do…"said James.

"Throw anything and everything into our trunks and sort through it on the train," finished Remus.

"Sounds like a plan!" said Sirius.

And with that they sprinted around the room picking up random books and articles of clothing not really caring whose stuff was whose. In five minutes they had stuffed everything into their trunks and were jumping on their trunks to close them. In about four minutes left till the carriages left they were racing to get down to the Great Hall.

The girls had been standing in the back of the line and got into one of the last ten carriages there, hoping that the boys had gotten into one of the other ones seeing as they had not been in the Great Hall when they left.

"I hope the boys get one of the carriages…" said Lily, glancing out the small window trying to spot their friends.

"I don't. I think it would be funny if they had to walk…" said Gemma, with a smirk.

"Gemma!" said Alice, "That would not be good; we would never hear the end of it considering we are spending all of break at the Potters."

"Oh…You're right. I hope they get a carriage, that way I don't need to hear about it for our two weeks of break," she said.

"Wow Gem, you're such a loving cousin," said Adaline, smiling.

"Don't say that like you love all of our lovely cousins…" said Adrian, jokingly.

"You're right, man I'm jealous of your family!" said Adaline smiling, but also completely serious, she wished that she could have people like them in her family.

"Hey what do you think pulls the carriages?" asked Lily.

"My sister Marie told me that they are pulled by invisible horses," said Alice, "But she said that she did not know for sure."

"That's interesting, I wonder what actually pulls it…" thought Lily.

"Me too," said Gemma, "I bet its unicorns!"

"Umm, no that isn't very likely, it's probably horses," said Adrian.

"Um, no I think it's unicorns."

"No really, I bet it's horses."

"Unicorns!"

"Horses!"

"UNICORS!"

"HORSES!"

"UNIC-"

"HORS-"

"Shu-" started Adaline but she was cut off.

"UNICORNS!"

"H-"

"UN-"

"HORSES!"

"UNICORNS!"

"Clearly it's horses!"

"No, clearly it's unicorns!"

"Um, guys don't y-" started Lily, but she too was cut off.

"Horses!"

"Unicorns!"

"Where would they get this many unicorns?"

"I don't know. Where would they get this many horses?"

"It doesn't matter; all that matters is that they are pulling the carriages."

"You're delusional, it's clearly unicorns!"

"HORSES!"

"UNICORNS!"

"SHUT UP!" cried Alice, causing everyone to turn towards her, who was just sitting there calmly like nothing happened.

That was when their carriage pulled up towards the Platform. The girls quickly hopped out of their carriage and ran to get a bigger compartment that could fit the nine of them in it comfortably. They raced quickly and found a compartment that could fit all of them in it and they sat down. And just like the Prefect told them their trunks appeared above them.

"You're in our compartment," said a tough looking Slytherin who was in about 4th year.

"Too bad, so sad, we got here first," said Lily bravely.

"Too bad, you need to move," he countered, glaring at her in a way that she assumed meant to be intimidating, "Or we'll make you move."

"How cute, they think that we will actually move," said Gemma in a sickly sweet voice, "And I highly doubt you have the brains to move us."

You could tell that struck a nerve, and judging by his vein in his neck a pretty big one.

"Yes we could!" said one of the girls in the back.

"I'd like to see you try," said Adaline, and before anyone knew what was happening Lily was up in the air dangling by her ankle, and showing the world her underwear, which happened to be pink with green polka-dots that day.

 She was instantly regretting the decision of wearing her uniform. All of the girls had packed away their winter clothes to bring home, forgetting entirely about an outfit to wear on the train. Her friends tried to help her but she was to high up that they couldn't reach her. Lily’s face was heating up in anger, and she was close to tears of embarrassment, though she refused to let the bullies see that.

"Oh look at her cute little pink and green polka-dot knickers! So innocent!" sneered the guy in front, and the one doing the spell.

Alice looked at her friends and motioned for them to go under Lily and to be ready to catch her and then she stepped forward and punched the 4th in his 'family jewels' (though Alice would later say she thought he was just faking the pain because she was certain she didn’t feel anything there), causing an embarrassed Lily to fall into her friends waiting arms, and all of the Slytherins ran off, well other than the one on the ground who had a look of pain on his face, he rolled away.

"Nice punch Alice!" said James, as the boys walked in, shutting the door, "Just don't ever do that to me!"

"Don't give me a reason too…" she laughed, "I mean, if you got on my nerves enough…"

"You wouldn't…"

"I suggest you don't find out," said Alice evilly, though she knew that she would never do it because for the trouble she would get in it would not be worth it (in most cases-though little did she know that one day in the future the urge to punch him would be much stronger, and one day, she would snap), but James didn't have to know that now did he…

"James I would be nicer to her if I were you…" said Sirius, and both Remus and Peter were nodding vigorously and needless to say, the boys all took seats on the other side of the compartment, terrified that she might punch them as well, this humored the girls to a great extant.

Other than that the rest of the trip was very uneventful, and they finally arrived on Platform 9 3/4.

"Okay, we need to say our good byes here, we'll be grounded even more if we are seen together. Sorry…" said Sirius, "So good bye, and Merry Christmas!"

"Bye!" said Adrian.

"Merry Christmas!" said Adaline.

"Bye! Merry Christmas!" everyone said in unison as the other three grabbed their trunks and left.

Everyone else grabbed their trunks and soon followed their friends onto the crowded Platform. Remus was the first one to spot his parents and after a quick good bye to his friends he raced towards his parents, a smile on his face. Peter was next, he found his parents standing in a corner, about a foot away from each other, and he knew instantly that they had gotten into another fight, so he too said good-bye to his friends, though not as quick, and left.

"Alice, Gemma, James!" cried an older student from Hufflepuff, "We're over here!"

So with a final goodbye to Lily they left, and Lily made her way off of the Platform to the other side where she knew that her parents would be waiting with a very reluctant sister. 

* * *

Wow guys, sorry it's been so long! I hope you are still enjoying this story here is the next chapter! I am watching Harry Potter so I'll probably sit here and edit some more! :) WOO! 

 

* * *

 


	13. Chapter 13

Lily ran over to her parents and when she saw them she pulled them into a tight hug, then, out of habit, she turned towards her sister, who just glared at her and pushed her away. Lily tried not to physically flinch in pain. How could people go from being best friends to hating each other (well, one sided hate…but still).

"Petunia!" her mother scolded, "How many times do I have to tell you that you need to be nice to your sister?"

"Sorry mum," Petunia grumbled, and then grudgingly she gave her sister a hug, though Lily knew it was all fake.

One the ride home the tension in the back seat could have been cut with a knife, Lily was answering all of her parents questions about school, an Petunia was glaring out the window, pretending not to be listening, when she was really taking in every word.

"What about your friends?" asked her mother, "How many will be coming over on Monday?"

"Eight people will be coming over," said Lily, "There's James, Adrian and Sirius, who are really funny, and Remus can be too, though he’s a little more quiet and his poor mother is sick so he occasionally he needs to go home so that he can be with her. Alice and Gemma are both hyper and crazy, then there's Adaline, she's really smart and always wins at the game called Exploding Snap, and then there's Peter, he can be really funny at times, but most of the time he's really quiet, I think he’s really observant and watches people. And then of course there's Sev, but he only gets along with Adaline."

"Wow, Monday is going to be very interesting," said her father, and then jokingly he added, "Though I am not sure what I think about you being friends with all of these boys…"

"Daddy!" she said, though she was smiling, it was good to see her family again she had really missed them.

                                                      ***

Remus raced over to his parents smiling.

"Mum, dad!" he said, hugging each of them.

"Remus!" his mother said happily, "I want to hear all about your first semester in school in the car."

"Okay," he said happily, and with that they headed out to the car.

"So how did the full moons go?" asked his father once they were in the safety of the car.

"It's tough, but Madame Pomfrey is doing everything she can to make it better, and the Shack is perfect for it," he said, leaving out all the gruesome details, knowing that they blame themselves enough as it was.

"So tell us about the rest of you're year," said his mother, happy for her son.

"Well on the train…" he started and he launched into a detailed story of his year and how he had met his crazy friends, feeling so much happier than he ever thought possible.

                                                      ***

Alice, James and Gemma followed Alice's older sister Marie over to where Isabel Potter was standing. Isabel quickly gave her son a huge hug, then move on to her niece, and lastly to Alice, having already hugged Marie.

"So, how was your semester?" asked Isabel.

"Amazing!" said Gemma, happily.

"Good," said Marie.

"Brilliant!" said James smiling.

"Magnificent!" said Alice.

"Wow, Alice used a big word," joked James.

"I know big words!" said Alice.

"Like what?" asked James teasingly.

"Like… super cala fragalistic expialadocious!" she said which stumped James.

"Well…" he said, and Alice just stuck out her tongue.

"Come on you guys let's get home," said Isabel.

"Where?" asked Gemma, knowing it could mean any of their three houses.

"Our place this year, you guys will all be staying here all break," she said, smiling kindly.

"Cool!" said Gemma, and with that they headed out to where the Ministry car was waiting for him them, talking about their year so far and how much they were having.

                                             ***

Peter was cautious when he reached his parents. He knew that they had been fighting, and that it had been a bad one seeing as to how far about from each other they were standing. They had been fighting for the last year about this and that. Mainly it was about a man named Tom Riddle, but that was all that Peter could ever catch from their conversations. His mother liked to shelter him too much so he didn’t know much about what was going on, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to judging by the screaming matches that are an ordinary occurrence in the Pettigrew household. 

"Hi mum, hi dad," he said, still cautious because he wasn’t sure how angry his parents would be, and he didn’t want any of that anger taken out on him.

"Hi honey," said his mother pulling him into a big hug, while his father just nodded at him, and "Let's go out to the car shall we?"

He nodded and followed his parents out to their car. The car ride home was ridden in complete silence, no one asked him once how his semester was, no it was just completely dead silent.

When the Pettigrews arrived at their home and Peter took his trunk upstairs to his room and sat on his bed. He wondered how his parents could be so heartless, not once did they ask him how he was, it was almost like a business, and he hated it. He was about to go down stairs when he heard the beginnings of another fight, and he knew that he would not be eating dinner with them that night, and that he would need to get his own food. Well, he would get it later after they had cleared out.

"NO I WILL NOT LET THAT MAN AROUND MY SON!" he heard his mother yell.

"WHY NOT?" his father countered.

"THE MAN IS EVIL! PURE EVIL!" his mother yelled.

"WELL, THE CHOICE IS BASICALLY BE ON HIS SIDE, OR DIE! WOULD YOU RATHER WE DIE?"

"WE CAN FIGHT! DO YOU THINK THAT EVERYONE IS GOING TO STAND BY AS HE IS KILLING PEOPLE?"

"NO, BUT PEOPLE WILL EVENTUALLY SEE THAT HE IS RIGHT!"

"YOU BELIEVE THAT HE IS RIGHT?"

"YES I DO!"

That was when Peter stopped listening; he just couldn't take it anymore. He opened his window and climbed onto the roof, where he climbed into the tree and down to the ground, then walked to the park nearby. Hearing his parents yells as he walked down the street. He just wanted some peace and quiet, and it didn’t seem like that would be happening at home anytime soon.

                                             ***

Sirius, Adrian and Adaline walked over to where their parents were standing, each dreading this moment, they knew they were in trouble. Their parents saw them and gave them tight lipped ‘smiles’ (which said more of ‘I’m going to enjoy killing you’ as opposed to the ‘I love you and you and I am so glad you’re home’ kind) and started walking to the car, motioning for them to follow them, not wanting to make a scene in front of all of their peers.

When they got to their cars Sirius said a quick goodbye to Adaline and Adrian, then got into the car.

And the second the door closed his mother turned to him, "Sirius Orin Black, you are a disgrace to the Black family! What is this? Being a Gryffindor? And from what I hear befriending Mudbloods and Blood traitors? I forbid you from leaving the house this break, unless you are with the family! You will be locked in your room and the House Elves will bring you your meals. I cannot even look at you. How could you do this to your poor mother?"

"But-" started Sirius;  _she couldn't possibly do that, could she? There had to be laws against that…not that that had stopped her before._

"No buts! You have disrespected your family and now you will pay the price! You will not be allowed to hang out with those 'people' you call your friends, EVER. When you get to school I expect you to stop hanging around  _them_!" she said, "And don't worry Adaline and Adriana are both getting the same punishment. There will be no extra communication between the three of you! No owls and no floo, nothing!"

 _Great, this will be a fun break..._ thought Sirius.

                                             ***

When the Princes arrived home Adrian and Adaline were both banished to their rooms, though, because their rooms were connected by a bathroom they both hung out in Adrian's room. That was the one thing that their parents couldn’t do it was keeping them apart, unless they were to move their rooms. Thankfully they hadn’t thought about that yet because that

"What are we going to do?" asked Adaline, "There is no way I am only leaving my room for those stupid little gatherings!"

"Well we could always use the floo powder we've been stashing in our rooms for the past three years, I mean we can't use it a lot but at least to go to Lily's Monday."

"That could work, we need to let Sirius know, though he has probably already thought about that..."

"Yeah, do you think that Sunny will cover for us?"

"Yeah, she likes us better than mum, we always treat her better, and before we leave, I think that I will free her, I can't leave her here with mother."

"Agreed!"

                                             ***

Monday came around sooner than they thought, and everyone was arriving at the Evans' household. Remus was the first one to arrive, and a few minutes later Peter followed, and after that James, Alice, Gemma, Adrian, Adaline and Sirius all arrived together.

"Hey guys!" Lily greeted them when they rang the doorbell to her house.

"Hi Lily!" said Adaline.

"So we were thinking that we could go to the park, and then come back and eat sandwiches for lunch and do whatever," said Lily.

"Alright!" said Adrian, "Wait does Severus go to this park? Because for all that our families know, we are upstairs sitting in our room dying of boredom…"

"No, I decided that we would go to a different one because I figured that would be the case," said Lily, not quite happy about her friends sneaking out, but happy that they did.

"Okay, let's go then!" said Sirius, happy to be out of his room for the first time in a few days.

"Okay," said Lily, then she yelled to her mom, "We're leaving for the park!"

"Alright, be safe and come back by noon!" called Mrs. Evans.

"Will do Mrs. Evans!" said Remus seeing as that gave them about an hour and a half at the park, and with that they were out the door, laughing and joking.

The walk to the park took ten minutes from the Evans' house, and when they got the park they all ran towards the swings, pushing each other over to be able to get one of the four swings. In the end, Alice, Remus, James and Sirius got them. Lily stuck her tongue out at her friends and then made her way over to the slide, so that she could sit on top of it. Gemma and Adaline soon joined her, while Adrian and Peter went to the monkey bars, which Peter was surprisingly good at.

"Um, guys, I think that we need to go…" said Lily, looking at the four shapes that were coming down the street.

"Why?" asked Gemma, confused.

"Because I think that's Severus coming with a group of Slytherin friends…"

And with that they all ran quickly to the woods behind the park, hiding there. And sure enough Severus showed up with some other Slytherins.

"I thought that this was the park he wouldn't go to," hissed Adrian.

"Me too!" Lily whispered, "He normally goes to the one on the other side of town, and so do I."

"We need to get out of here," said James, and they all nodded in agreement.

"Okay, follow me," said Lily, and with that she started leading them through the woods.

Going through the woods was easy, they came out on the opposite end, and found that it lead directly into Lily's neighborhood, though she lived on the other end of it. So now all they had to do was cut through some yards and they ended up in Lily's.

"Wow, that was close!" said Peter, breathing a sigh of relief even though it wasn’t his neck on the line.

"It was fun though," said Gemma, loving the adventure of the entire situation.

"I agree," said Alice, grinning.

"I'm hungry," Sirius whined.

"Well, let's go and eat our sandwiches then," said Lily and she showed them the way to the kitchen, "Hey mom, can we make our sandwiches now?"

"Of course, but I thought that you were going to the park?" said Mrs. Evans, she had a long neck, red hair, high cheekbones and blue eyes.

"Well we were, but then Sev was coming down the street, and he doesn't like my friends other than Adaline," she explained, wishing that her friends would just get along.

"I see, well just give me a few minutes to set up then you can come back in and make your lunch."

"Thanks Mrs. Evans!" said James, giving her a huge grin.

"Any time dear," she replied, smiling kindly at him.

About five minutes later they were sitting in Lily's back yard and eating their sandwiches (well in Sirius’ case it was three).

"So how is everyone's breaks been going?" asked Remus.

"Horrible! I am always so bored!" said Sirius, "I have absolutely no one to talk to until about 11 at night when everyone is asleep and I can floo over to Adrian or Adaline's room to hang out."

"I know! Though we don't have it as bad because we have each other," said Adrian, Adaline nodding in agreement.

"Mines been pretty good, though I wish Tuney would talk to me," said Lily.

"Tuney?" asked Peter.

"Petunia my sister," she clarified.

"Oh," he said, "Mines been boring to, I basically hang up in my room."

"Mines been great!" said James, "I've been able to play loads of Quidditch!"

"Mine too!" said Gemma nodding.

"Same," groaned Alice, who was clearly sick of Quidditch, "What about yours Remus?"

"It's been nice," he said smiling.

"Well that's good."

"Um, excuse me, freak, I am having friends over later, after your freaky ones leave, so I would appreciate it if you stayed out of my way. I can’t have them knowing what you are," said a blonde girl, who had Mrs. Evan's eyes and long neck and blue eyes.

"Fine," grumbled Lily, ignoring the insults that her sister had just thrown at her.

And with that the blonde left, afraid that she may be a freak by association.

"I take it that that's Petunia?" said Adaline.

"Yep," said Lily.

"She looks like a horse…in a way…I think it’s the neck," said Sirius, earning him a slap from Lily.

"Hey! What was that for?" he said.

"I may not get along with her, but please don't insult her," said Lilly, with a pleading look in her eye, “She is still my sister.”

"Okay," he said, “Sorry.”

"It's fine," Lily said with a shrug, knowing that her sister did indeed look kind of like a horse (now that she thought of it).

And for the rest of the afternoon they stayed outside talking, and for the first time over their break they were all entirely happy and they felt like nothing could go wrong.

After her friends left that night Lily was down stairs saying goodbye to her mom, who was leaving for the airport to catch the 7 o'clock flight to visit her Grandma, who had a failing health in her old age.

"Bye Mum! I love you, give Grandma my love as well, tell her I hope she feels better and will visit her this summer!" she said, hugging her mom tightly.

"I love you to Lily, behave yourself and be nice to your sister."

"I will mom."

And after her mom said goodbye to her sister and dad, her mom was out the door, and Lily went back up to her room, where she started her homework, only to fall asleep in the middle of it.

Lily was in the middle of a good dream when she heard the phone ring, so she ran down stairs to the kitchen to answer, when she saw that her dad had already answered it.

"Hello?" he said, and then Lily watched as his face paled and he dropped the phone, which fell along with her stomach.

 

 


	14. Chapter 14

"Daddy?" Lily asked timidly, "What's wrong?"

Petunia came running into the kitchen sensing that something was off, "What was-" and stopped dead when she saw the look of pain on her father's face, and the terrified look on Lily's, "Lily? What happened?" she asked her sister, forgetting that she was supposed to hate her sister.

"I-I don't know…" she said, starting to get worried, as her father made his way to the kitchen table, and took a seat in one of the chairs, tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

"Daddy?" asked Petunia, she was dreading the words that would come out of his mouth, “Was that mom? Is something wrong with Gran?”

"She's de-dead," he said, with the tears starting rolling down his cheeks, completely ignoring Petunia’s question, "Yo-your mo-mother…h-her pl-plane cr-cr-crashed. Th-there w-we-were n-o su-survivors…"

Her father was wailing in the chair while Lily stood frozen in disbelief, there was no way her mother could be dead, she had just seen her two hours ago kissing her goodbye, but the look on her father's face she knew that she was gone, and would never be coming back. This was something that she was not willing to accept, she refused to believe it.

Looking at Petunia she could tell that she was feeling the same way, and at the same time both girls made their way over and hug their father, and they stayed like that for the rest of the night, crying, wondering how the world could take their mother away from them and what on earth they would do without her. And the thing is, Lily just didn't know. Her mother was a good person, one of the best. Always helping people and being kind, she even went to church every Sunday, so why did she have to be taken from this earth? She had a family that depended on her…so why would God take her away?

                                             ***

After James, Alice and Gemma got back to the Potter Manor they all took their brooms, and then, along with Marie and Gemma's younger brother Jake, went out to the Potter's Quidditch Pitch and played two-on-three: James, Jake and Alice versus Gemma and Marie.

It was a close game, but only because James was really good, and in the end he just wasn't good enough and Marie and Gemma came out victorious and James spent the rest of the night sulking in his room, while the girls grabbed some magazines and painted their nails. Gossiping about everything, giggling all night long.

The next morning James was still as crabby as he was the night before, and the fact that Gemma was rubbing it in his face did not really help matters. Before they knew it Gemma was screaming because James had dyed her hair blue, and Alice knew then that this was going to go on all break. One prank would turn into two and soon it would be war.

And sure enough, soon James was sporting pink hair, and Gemma's hair had been changed back to the normal color, only to change to green shortly later.  _Yep, this was going to be a long break_ …thought Alice, _but highly amusing as long as they keep me out of it..._

                                             ***

Adaline and Adrian flooed into Adaline's room unnoticed by their family, but just barely.

As soon as they got all of the soot off of themselves their door swung open. And their tall curvy, mean sister Abigail was standing in their doorway with a snooty look on her face (Adrian often told her that it looked like she smelt something funny).

"Mum says you need to get ready for the party tonight," she said in a high pitched, unfriendly voice, suspecting her sisters were up to something, and then with a glare (unable to prove anything) she slammed the door closed.

"Great…" said Adaline, "Do you think that we can play sick and get out of it?"

"As if, she hates us remember?"

"Yeah, what's new?"

  
"We're in Gryffindor."

"Dang."

"Yeah. Besides, Sirius would murder us…"

"We could take him!"

"True," said Adrian, and the girls burst into laughter.

And with that Adrian left and took a shower while Adaline picked out her outfit, then Adaline was in the showed and Adrian was getting changed, then they did their hair together, and even added a little bit of make up that they knew their mother would insist on them wearing. Then they made their way down to their family room where most of their family was waiting. They cringed knowing what the night to come would bring, and knowing that they wouldn’t enjoy a minute of it.

                                                      ***

Sirius was not as lucky as Adaline and Adrian. Regulus was in his room when he got back, in fact he was almost out the door, no doubt to tell his mother he was gone.

"Where were you?" he asked, as soon as he saw his brother come through the fancy fireplace, "I was just going to go and tell mum you were gone...I thought you weren’t allowed to leave?"  
"I was at a friend's house, please don't tell…" he begged, hoping his brother would listen to him because if he didn’t Sirius knew he was going to be in serious trouble.

Regulus nodded, and Sirius let out a sigh of relief, he was glad that he and his brother got along, even if he and his parents did not, "But mum said you need to get ready for the party."

"Where's it at this time?"

"Here."

"Great."

And with that Regulus left leaving Sirius to get ready, dreading the night that was coming, knowing that he would have to dance with the various girls that his parents planned for him to marry. He had to act like the perfect son, like he was happy and like he wanted to be there.

                                             ***

Remus got back from Lily's in a great mood. He was thrilled that he could go to Hogwarts, but he did not think that he would be able to make friends. Well, he did, and now he could not help but wonder what would happen if they found out what he was, and he did not like the idea, so he vowed to himself that he would not tell them, because he did not want to mess any of his friendships up. He knew it was selfish, but he valued them way too much and he refused to leave them.

"Hey honey, did you have fun at your friend's house?" his mother asked from the door of his room, smiling brightly at him.

"Yeah!" he said flashing her a grin.

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing…"  
"Remus John Lupin don't lie to me, I am your mother, I can tell when something is wrong and when you are lying."

"I'm not…"

"Yes, you are now what's wrong?"  
Remus sighed; his mother could always tell when he was unhappy she wasn’t lying, "I'm afraid that they'll find out what I am…"

"It will be alright, from what you tell me about your friends, I don't think that they will care…they seem very accepting."

Remus just shook his head, wishing more than anything that he could believe her. That they would accept him and still be his friend, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that they wouldn’t. He would probably have to move out of the dorms because the boys wouldn’t want to stay with him and the girls would no longer talk to him. He would be all alone, but he the more he thought about it, the more he decided that was all he would ever get in life. He would always be alone.

"Anyways, it's time for dinner, come on," and with that they went and ate dinner, and Remus told his parents all about Lily's house, which lifted his mood considerably (as he pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind), he just hoped that his mom was right...

                                                      ***

Peter came home and as soon as he and his mom enter the house another fight broke out, so he made his way up to his room, and lay down on his bed, thinking about his friends, and how he could not wait to get back to school so that he did not need to listen to his parents constant fighting. The only nice thing was that his parents had take to ignoring him, he no longer felt like he was being strangled, he had finally gained a little bit of freedom.

He could tell that tonight was worse than most nights, and was not surprised at all to hear the door slamming shut, knowing that his mother had probably just gone off for the night, but she would be back in the morning, she always was. She would most likely be half drunk still, and his father would be passed out on the couch because that was how the cooled off. There were a few hours of drunken peace but then they would sober up and the yelling would start all over again. Peter was hoping a wave of peace would come, like it always did, and things would be peaceful for a few months.

This is what Peter was expecting, so as you can imagine it was a nasty shock when Peter walked down stairs that morning to find his dad sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and reading the paper, and his mom no where in sight.

"Where's mum?" he asked.

"Don't know," his father said, and Peter could tell by the tone of his voice that he really didn't care.

So Peter made himself some eggs and joined his father at the table, where he ate in an awkward silence. Figuring his mother would be back soon, she was probably just passed out somewhere.

                                    ***

The Princes made their way to the Blacks' house shortly after the rest of the family arrived in the living room, and they as soon as they entered the Blacks' house they made to make their way upstairs to Sirius' room when their mom stopped them.

"I don't think so," she said, her voice full of malice, and she pulled them into the ballroom, where people where dancing.

Soon boys were making their way over to dance with the Prince girls, and much to Adaline and Adrian's likings, that included them as well. I mean, really? How can dancing with guys who had no personality other than the ones their parents shoved down their throats when they were little not be fun?

And when Adrian looked over she could see that Sirius was dancing as well, no doubt forced to by his mother. Judging by the bored look on his face he was having just as much fun as they were. He looked like he would rather be watching grass grow.

It took them a good two hours before they could actually escape into the safety of Sirius' room without anyone noticing.

"Merlin, I hate dancing," complained Adrian loudly, taking off her shoes and rubbing her blistered feet.

"Me too," said Sirius, copying her actions, "So I take it you made it back undetected?"  
"Yeah, but just barely. I assume you did too," said Adaline, also taking off her shoes.

"No, Reg knows, but he promised not to tell mum," he said, again, thankful he got along with his brother, “I’m just hoping he keeps his promise.”

"Good, our parents would have our heads…"said Adrian, and the other two shuddered thinking about the trouble that they would be in if they did get caught, “Reg likes you, so you should be okay.”

They spent the rest of the night in Sirius' room talking, and plotting, joined by the occasional sibling and soon it was time for them to go, and for the three of them to be locked in their rooms once more. Back to their own personal jail.

                                             ***

The next day, Mr. Evans went to prepare for the funeral, while Petunia's friends came over to comfort her, leaving Lily alone to do what she wanted, so she went and took a nice long bath, trying to soothe herself.

She hadn't told any of her friends, not even Severus that her mom had died, and she did not think that she could bring herself to. She could hardly even admit to herself. If she were to tell someone it would make it real.

Before she knew it the tears were rolling down her cheeks, so she got out of the bath, put on her comfortable pajamas and ran to her room where she collapsed onto the bed and sobbed, wishing that it was not true, wishing that her mom by some miracle had survived, but deep down she knew that there was no way that her mom would come back, and they would never get to do the crosswords together at the morning table, or read in the park together, and she knew, that going back to school and leaving her family was going to be really hard, and she wasn't sure that she could do it. They would need her, and she would need them.

                                             ***

Peter waited all day for his mom to come back home, but she never did, and he began to worry, so again he went to his dad and asked, "Dad, where's mum?"

"I don't know son, I told you this morning! Besides, I don't really care, she wasn't good for anything anyways…" his father snapped, and Peter knew that this was not good, and that this time, he did not think that she was coming back.

So Peter made his way to his bathroom and took a shower, and he kept hoping that his mother would be there in the morning and that it had just been a particularly nasty fight, but she would be back. I mean, she couldn't leave him, could she? She was always talking about how much she loved him, and how she would always take care of him (even if he did feel smother most of the time) so she could just pick up and leave. Not if she really did love him like she said. 


	15. Chapter 15

On Wednesday Lily woke up, her eyes tearing up slightly when she remembered what she was going to do later that day. She got up and went to the bathroom where she took a shower and got changed into her black dress. When she got out she found her sister waiting by the door, though judging by her wet hair, she had already been in the shower.

"I'm curling my hair, are you going to want me to do yours too?" she asked, giving her sister a small smile.

"Sure," said Lily, so Petunia entered the bathroom with her and plugged in her curling iron.

"Do you want me to blow dry it for you too?" she asked.

"That's okay, I can do that myself," and so Lily did, she blow-dried her hair.

In about a half an hour both of the girls were ready and standing downstairs, waiting for their dad. When he came downstairs, dressed in all black and with a somber look on his face, the little family of three made their way out onto their driveway where the limousine was waiting for them. The limousine driver gave the family a sympathetic look, but said nothing as he drove them to the small church.

Lily's father got out first, then Petunia, then herself, and they went and stood in front of the church. When people started arriving Lily shook hands, smiling sadly, and waited until they could get into the church.

She hated getting the sympathetic looks from people and people telling her that they were sorry. I mean, it's not like they crashed the plane! So why were they telling her that they were sorry? Yeah, it stunk; yeah her mom was dead, but still…She really hated the sympathy and wanted nothing more than for this to be over.

Finally the Evans family were able to enter the church, where they made their way up to sit in the front pew, where Lily's aunt was sitting, giving her a sad look. She was grateful for her aunt’s presence because they never really saw her. After her husband died her aunt had taken up travelling and very rarely showed up at family functions. Lily knew that she still called and talked with her mother though, well she did, they were always close. Lily could feel herself shaking and the tears streaming down her face and her aunt reached for her hand, the tears streaming down her face as well.

The casket entered, being carried by four men in tuxes, and Lily sighed, knowing that her mom was not actually in there, they hadn't been able to tell who was who after the crash so they had no body to bury.

She sat there in silence as the Priest talked about what a great person her mother was, and soon it was her family's turn to go up there. First went her Grandma, being her mom's mom.

"Delilah was a good person, who did not deserve this terrible fate, she was flying out to see her Grandmother, my deceased husbands mum, who gives her apologies, but with her current condition, she is unable to attend today. She was going to go and help take care of her Grandmother for a couple of days, because that is the type of person she was. She was nurturing, and caring, kind and loving. I am very proud to call her my sister, and I will forever miss her. She was always there fore me, when my husband, and her brother, passed she didn’t leave my side. She always put others before herself. She was my sister and my best friend, I love you my dear, you will be greatly missed."

And with that her aunt went and sat down. And she walked up with her sister, though Petunia was going to do the talking because Lily did not think that she would be able to. Petunia didn’t think she was going to be able to do it either, but as the older sister she knew she should. It was her job to take care of her sister right now, even if she was a freak.

"We are always going to miss our Mum. She was always there when we needed advice or when we were sick. She taught us to love, and to put others before ourselves, she hated it when we argued, and would always tell us in a stern voice, that we rarely heard, 'Get along girls! You are sisters for goodness sake!' and we would just glare at each other but we would stop arguing. When we were sick she would take us to the doctor so that we could get the medicine to get better, and would constantly be getting us stuff. She was always there, and always cared. We love you Mum. We will always keep you in our hearts."

And with that Lily and Petunia made their way back to their seats, on either side of their father, who then got up and made his way to the front to talk.

"Delilah always loved, for as long as I knew her. It was one of my favorite qualities about her. She was always there for me when I needed her, and always knew what to say to make me feel better. It did not take me long to realize that she was the one, and I knew that I could not live without her in my life, like I now have to do. We were married within a year of knowing each other, and had our lovely daughter Petunia two years later, and another two later Lily. They were her pride and joy, and she was always proud of them. She would always put her family in front of herself, and would never ask for anything. I will always miss her, and I will always love her, even if she is not here with me physically, she will always be with me in my heart. I love you Delilah. My Delilah. Goodbye."

And with that he went and joined Lily and Petunia. Where they sat and listen to people talking about how great their mom was, with tears rolling down their faces, knowing that they would never need to her again. She would never touch lives again; she would never be able to help others. All the kind words that were said helped the Evans family in their grief, knowing how loved she was.

When the mass was over, they all walked out behind the casket, holding each other, trying to comfort each other. They walked over to the cemetery and watched as they lowered 'her' into the ground.

So Lily and her family made their way back and into limousine, and back to their house. All in complete silence, none of them looking forward to entertaining people at their house, but knowing that it was a duty that they had to do.

"Hey Lils, can you help me set up the food?" asked Petunia, her voice barely a whisper.

"Sure Tuney," said Lily, her voice still a little shaky.

And so the two girls walked around and went into the kitchen where they took the food that they had made yesterday out. They did this in silence.

Soon people were coming into their house and offering apologies. They did numerous toasts in memory of their mom. And by the end of the night Lily was exhausted, and happy that this was over because she did not like being told how sorry everyone was. In fact, it annoyed her, a lot. Lily Evans soon discovered that she hated sympathy so much.

The entire Evans family forgot that it was Christmas Eve, not really caring. They were just upset, and wanted to sleep. Wishing still, that this was a horrible dream that they would wake up from in the morning, and that everything would be back to normal. That Delilah Evans would come walking through that door in the morning, wishing them a Happy Christmas and everything would be okay.

* * *

That night, Lily wasn't the only one who was not happy. Remus Lupin was dreading that night, it was the full moon, and he knew that this would mean he would sleep most of Christmas.

"Remus, dear, come on, your father and I have an early present for you!" his mom called, sounding way too happy for Remus’ likings since it was the full moon and she knew what it did to him.

So Remus made his way down the hall to where his mother was standing by the sliding glass door in the kitchen, feeling very nervous.

"Mum, it's the full moon, remember, I only have a half an hour…" he told her.

"It'll be fine Remus, come on," said his father, so Remus and his family made their way outside, Remus getting more and more nervous as the minutes ticked by.

They made their way down the winding path, through the woods, and then stop in front of a shack. This shack only had windows at the very top of it, and it looked really sturdy.

"Happy early Christmas honey," said his mother, "Do you like it?"

"I love it," he said, smiling despite all the pain that he was in.

"We'll how about you go inside, and we will come and get you in the morning," said his father noting the time.

Remus nodded, and opened the door. He was surprised to see that there was stuff in the little room. It was filled with multiple pillows, and if Remus would have had time he would have run out and hugged both of his parents, but he started to change before that.

He could feel the searing pain rush through his entire body, as his mind started to disappear.

The last thing his parents heard as the walked away was a howl.

* * *

The next morning James woke everyone up bright and early, only to find out that they couldn't open presents until Neville and Susana arrive, which was not happening until at least 10:30, it was currently 8.Needless to say, the rest of the family was not happy.

"JAMES HAROLD POTTER! WHY DID YOU NEED TO WAKE US UP THIS EARLY!" cried Gemma, who was supporting green hair again, while James was supporting red.

They called this their Christmas spirit, while Alice called it their specialness.

"I'm sorry that Neville is so slow to get here! I owled him and told him to be here at 8 sharp!" said James, though joking; Neville was like the older brother that he never had.

"Yeah, like Neville would listen to you..."

"What about me listening to James?" came a voice from behind them.

And in walked Neville. He was tall with brown hair, and ocean blue eyes. Next to him was his girlfriend of two years Susana Bones, she had blonde hair, and was shorter, and curvy, but beautiful.

"You did listen!"

"Um, okay?"

"You came at 8!"

"Oh yeah, I knew you and Jake wouldn't be able to put off opening your presents. James why is your hair red?"

"Well, Gemma-"

"You started it!" said Gemma, glaring at her cousin.

"Gemma, why is your hair green?" asked Susana, smiling slightly.

"James dyed it!" she said angrily, "All because Marie and I beat him in a game of Quidditch!"

"James!" said Susana, laughing slightly knowing exactly what the two of them were capable of.

"Well she dyed my hair too!"

"Who dyed whose hair first?" asked Neville.

"Neville! Susana!" cried Alice, running down the stairs, hugging her brother and his girlfriend, Marie right behind her.

"Alice! Marie!" they said, happily.

"Presents!" called James, causing everyone to laugh, and then they all made their way into the living room, where the Christmas tree was.

They all started opening their presents, happily, giving hugs of thanks. Then they went and they were in the dinning room eating their brunch. All enjoying their Christmas and their family, and all extremely happy.

* * *

"Adaline wake up!" cried Adrian, jumping onto her sisters bed, "It's Christmas!"

"Gah, Adrian! What time is it?" complained her sister.

"8:30!" cried Adrian, jumping up and down on Adaline’s queen sized bed.

"Gah!"

"We open presents at 9 sharp remember! We need to be dressed and ready otherwise our mother will throw a fit. Remember what mother said, we need to open our presents at 9, so that we can be out of the house by 10:30 to get the Malfoy's the annual Christmas party."

"Gah! Don't remind me!" Adaline mumbled, barely audible.

"You're vocabulary is very diverse in the morning," Adrian smugly pointed out.

"Shut it..."

"Okay, well get up and get ready!"

"Fine!" and with that Adaline threw off her covers and moved to her bathroom so that she could get into the warm shower.

After they were both ready and presentable (still too early in Adaline’s mind) they made their way to their family room where their family were all either entering or already sitting patiently. Well, with the look of patience, because it is improper to show impatience.

Their parents, Serpens and Aquila, were already there. Their mom had, long black hair that was graying slightly (she claimed it made her look more sophisticated, otherwise she would keep it dyed black). She had blue eyes, which the twins had inherited, and was short, but very skinny and to a person who did not know her they might even call her beautiful. Their father, much like their mom, had black hair, green eyes and was tall and lanky. Next entered their youngest sister Jamie, she was three years old and had black hair, which was pulled up in pig tails, and she had bright blue eyes that sparkled when she saw the amount of presents that she had under the tree. She entered with Heather, who was a fourth year at Hogwarts, in Slytherin of course, she too had black, and she had had her fathers trademark green eyes-which he claimed were ‘Slytherin’ green.

"Heather! Fix Jamie's hair! The pigtails are un-acceptable! Pull her hair back into a bun!" scolded their mother, and Heather nodded dutifully and fixed her sister’s hair.

Next entered Annabeth, with her black hair curled perfectly down to her mid back, showing her green eyes that sparkled. Then came in Henry, his shirt coming un-tucked (which he quickly fixed at their father’s firm stare), at age 9, and Alexander, at age 19, both of them had blue eyes, and following them was Juliet Malfoy, she had long silvery blonde hair, she had grey eyes, and her stomach was rounding slightly because she was expecting a baby by the end of the school year.

And last entered Abigail, age 9, with her black hair pulled into a serve bun, just like their mother liked their hair.

"Merry Christmas," said Abigail, in a fake cheery voice.

"Merry Christmas!" said Adaline, mimicking her sisters 'cheerful' voice, earning a warning look from their mother, which she ignored-she was still cranky from waking up.

"Can we open presents?" asked Jamie, excitedly.

"Fine," said their mother, and they opened their presents, Adaline and Adrian laughing at the one present that they both got from their parents.

It was a book,  _The Proper Manners that You Should Posses._ The girls were both choking back their laughter when they said their thank yous, and when they went upstairs they burst into laughter.

"They think that we are actually going to listen to this?" Adrian said, shaking with laughter.

"I know!" said Adaline, as they collapsed onto the floor shaking with laughter.

"Girls get down here now! We are leaving for the Malfoy's!" cried their father, so they put on their serious faces, and made their way downstairs, back to the family where their family was waiting for them.

And with that they flooed to the Malfoy Manor where the Snapes, Blacks, Malfoys, Carrows, Notts, Pettigrews, and Tom Riddle were all waiting for them. Everyone acting like they were having a good time, when in reality they were all more like business partners who could turn on each other at any second. This room was only filled with a certain amount of trust, most of which was misplaced. But they all hated everyone else more than each other, and they were the only ones that were deemed worthy. 

"Sirius!" the girls said, and they ran over and gave him a hug, which he gladly returned.

"Merry Christmas!" said Abigail, in an actually cheerful voice.

"Merry Christmas," said Lucius.

They knew that this was going to be a fun day, and with Tom there, they knew that they would not be able to pull any of the pranks that they had planed because they would get into so much more trouble. This was going to be a fun Christmas…

* * *

Lily woke up and went down stairs to make so breakfast for her family. And while she was waiting for the pancakes to be able to be turned she put the presents that she got for her sister and father under the tree.

Petunia woke up not to long later and helped Lily make breakfast, so by the time their dad was up they had finished making their breakfast and were just putting it on the table.

"Merry Christmas Daddy," the girls chimed, as they went and hugged their father.

"Merry Christmas girls," he said, and they sat down at breakfast, making small talk, trying not to think about the fact that their mother should have been with them.

"What do you say we open presents?" said Mr. Evans, once breakfast was put away.

"Okay!" the girls said, and they ran to the tree where they opened their presents.

Later that afternoon their Grandmother came over and they had lunch and opened more presents, again, only making small talk so that they did not make anyone more upset then they all already were, they were the Evan’s family, and they all strived for perfection and strength, even if they had to fake it.

* * *

At the Potter's they ate their brunch and then the girls all ran upstairs so that they could figure out they were wearing that night for the Potter's ball. The rest of their cousins eventually joining them. Jessica and Alyssa both came and did all of the girls make up, and hair while Susana and Marie helped the girls pick out what to wear, so by the time the guests were arriving they all looked beautiful. Gemma's hair was even back to it's normal shade of strawberry blonde, tonight, it was looking more red.

"You ladies look lovely," said Mr. Potter smiling.

"Thanks Mr. Potter!" said Alice, smiling brightly.

Alice's mood was even bubblier than before, seeing as to how it was Christmas, and she got to look pretty in a dress. In her opinion it couldn't get any better.

"Alice, James, Gemma!" said a voice from behind them.

"Candice! Frank! Tyler!" Alice yelled, and the three of them ran towards their friends.

"Merry Christmas!" said Alice, happily.

"Merry Christmas!" said Candice, "How have your breaks been?"

"Alright, I've been stuck with these two…" said James, pointing at Gemma and Alice.

"He dyed my hair!" said Gemma in outrage.

"Well maybe you should have let me win the game!"

"No, that wouldn't be fair!"

"And why not?"

"Then I couldn't win!"

"They’re crazy…" Alice whispered, and the three older students laughed lightly, highly amused by the situation.

"Yeah well you dyed my hair first!"

"But-"

"Okay, wow, you guys are still going on about this?" asked Marie, joining the conversation and rolling her eyes.

"I know!" said Alice, shaking her head and agreeing with her sister whole-heartedly.

"I find it amusing…" said Tyler, laughing.

"Of course you do…" said Frank, chuckling.

"Would you like to dance?" asked a tall male with brown hair to Marie.

"Um, sure," she said, and with a final smile, she was off.

"Hey Alice, wanna dance?" asked Tyler, winking at her jokingly.

"Well, I don't know…" said Alice, twirling her hair around her finger, trying to give the allusion that she was thinking, "I suppose," she added, smiling brightly.

"Well, Gemma, would you care to dance?" asked Frank, smiling, and holding out his hand.

"I don't know do you have cooties?" she asked, grinning, then nodding, she took his hand and they went to the dance floor.

"Candice!" said James, with a suggestive smile.

"Um…" she said, as she pretended to look around the room for an escape, then laughing lightly she took his hand and they too went to the dance floor.

* * *

The Lupin family had a quiet family dinner, with just Remus and his parents, and to be honest Remus could not have been happier. It might have been the full moon last night, but it must have been the easiest full moon that Remus had encountered. The glass roof helped his wolf feel like he was outside and running and the pillows gave him something to tear up. Besides, anything beat being chained in the cellar.

"So Remus, are you going to want to have your friends over sometime next week?" asked his mother.

"Is that okay?" he asked excitedly.

"Of course it is," she said smiling, "What day do you want to have them over?"

"Is Sunday okay?" he asked, hopefully.

"Sunday is just fine, why don't you send out the owl tonight, that way we can figure who will be here."

"Okay, can James, Sirius and Peter spend the night?" he asked, hopefully.

"Sure, why not?"

"Thanks Mum!" he said, and he ran off to his room where he wrote to his friends asking them to come over.

* * *

Christmas at the Blacks' house was always interesting. Okay, no it wasn't. In Sirius' opinion it just couldn't get any more boring. Andromeda wasn't even going to be there because she somehow managed to stay at school over the break. Lucky…it probably had something to do with the fact that she was disowned, but Sirius couldn’t help but feel jealous.

So Sirius woke up at 9 o'clock to his brother throwing open his door and jumping up onto his bed excitedly, while Sirius got up and got dress his brother continued to race around the house. And to be honest, Sirius wasn't that excited, he knew that the only presents he was going to get were going to be ones on manners, and he had already gotten his presents from his friends. Then he and his family never got along, so that was not a plus side either.

The best part about his day was going to be going to the Malfoys' later that day, and that was only half way decent because Adaline and Adrian were going to be there. They were his only sanity.

When Sirius arrived down stairs he found his brother was already sitting down, well bouncing on his knees, right in front of his presents.

"Sirius your present is over here. Why did you only get one?" asked Regulus, innocently.

"Because your brother has been a bad boy this year," his father, Orion sneered as he entered the room, his mother Walburga, following close behind.

"Can we open presents now please?" begged Regulus.

"That's fine," said Walburga Black.

That was all that Regulus needed to be told. He immediately started tearing apart the wrapping paper, thanking his parents politely for each present as they sat back and watched, not thrilled with how their son was ripping open his presents, but choosing not to say anything.

Sirius was not so quean to open his present. It looked like it was a book, and he hated books (the only decent ones were the ones on Quidditch and even those were a bore-he’d much rather be playing the sport). When he had finally taken off all of the wrapping paper it revealed, like he had guessed, a book. The book was called: _The Proper Manners that You Should Posses_. Sirius had to literally bite his tongue to keep from laughing.

"Thanks," he said, smirking.

"You're welcome," said his mother, "Now I suggest both of you go and smarten yourselves up, we leave for the Malfoys' in an hour."

"Yes mum," both boys said, climbing up to their rooms, Sirius shaking with laughter.

In an hour and five minutes, again, Sirius had been intentionally late, the Black family was off and arriving at the Malfoy Manor, and Sirius knew that he was not allowed to do anything because his family's creepy friend Tom Riddle was there, and he really did not want to offend him, and he had a feeling that if he did, Tom would make sure that he regretted it for the rest of his life.

* * *

Peter woke up Christmas morning, hoping that his mother would finally be back, she had been gone three days and Peter was starting to get worried. Every time he had asked his dad where she was he would tell him that he didn't have a clue. And for some reason Peter believed it.

So as you can imagine Peter was very disappointed when he ran downstairs and found that only his father was in the living room, his mother nowhere in sight.

"Is mum ever coming back?" asked Peter, though he already knew the answer, and really did not want to hear it.

"No," his father said gruffly, and Peter felt like he wanted to cry, "Now, I promised my friends that we would meet them for Christmas, and we will leave right after you finish opening you presents and are ready to go. I will expect you to be on your best behavior."

"Yes father," said Peter, and he moved to the tree, where he opened his presents, all of which happened to be candy.

"Thank you father," said Peter, and then he ran up to his room to change, dreading the day that was ahead of him, and wishing that his mother hadn't left.

When Peter got to his room he found an owl sitting on the roof by his window, and he immediately ran to the window and opened it. The letter attached to the owl was addressed to him, and it was written in his mother's curvy handwriting.

_Peter,_

_Merry Christmas. I am sorry, and I love you._

_Mum._

That was all it said, and Peter found himself growing angry towards her. How could she just leave him!? She always called him her little angel, her perfect child that she would do anything for. He wasn’t sure what changed

"Peter are you ready yet?" his father called from the stairs.

"No!" he shouted back, scrambling around the room looking for something appropriate to wear, while trying to blink back the furious tears.

"Well hurry up!" shouted Mr. Pettigrew, and Peter did.

* * *

"Merlin, this is so boring," said Adrian to Sirius and Adaline.

"I know!" said Sirius, "We can't even go and hide out in one of the rooms!"

"I know!" said Adaline.

"Sirius? Adrian? Adaline?" asked a voice from behind them, and they all turned around to see Peter coming towards them.

"Pete!" cried Adaline, and she ran and gave him a hug, "Merry Christmas!"  
"You too!" he said, happy that he could at least spend the day with his friends.

"So did you get anything good for Christmas?" asked Sirius.

"Candy," said Peter, smiling, "You guys?"

"I got a book!" said Sirius in outrage, casing Peter to laugh.

"Same," said Adaline, "Though I'm surprised we got anything at all…"

"Very true…" said Adrian, "So any ideas on how to make this party interesting?"  
"None…" said Peter, sadly.

"Prank…" said Sirius, smirking.

"Can't Tom’s here, they'd literally have our heads, and they'd hang them on the wall just like our mothers do with the house elves heads…" pointed out Adaline.

"Well that's no fun…" complained Sirius.

"We could sneak into the Library and read…" suggested Adaline.

"How about, no!" said Sirius.

"Oh yeah I forgot, you can't read…"

"I can too! I just choose not to…" said Sirius, sticking out his tongue.

This caused the group of friends laugh, earning glares from people who were actually enjoying the party.

* * *

Alice, Gemma, and James all had a fun night laughing and dancing with their friends, staying up late into the night, and eventually all crashing in their beds with out even changing out of their dress clothes. All with smiles on their faces and too much food in their stomachs.

 

* * *

Hey guys! Here's too chapters in one day since I am in a good mood and I am working on the first chapter of next one! :) WOOO! 

 


	16. Chapter 16

Lily woke up to an annoying tapping sound on her window Friday morning. She angrily rolled out of bed and made her way over to the window, where she let in a brown barn owl that she had never seen before. She was hoping that the neighbors didn’t see the owl or they would be extremely confused. She saw the letter attached to the owls foot and genuinely grinned.

Just then there was a scream in Lily's doorway and the sound of someone running away, which undoubtedly, belonged to Petunia to go and get her dad. Petunia wasn’t a fan of birds to begin with, and knowing that this one was magical definitely made it worse. So Lily grabbed the letter that was tied to the owl and smiled when she noticed Remus' neat handwriting. So she opened the letter up and read:

_Lily,_

_I am having everyone over on Sunday and was hoping that you would come over as well. I thought we could get together one more time before school started again. As for the transportation my mom will Apparate to your house and from there you will Apparate to the Potter’s (sorry, it’s going to feel very uncomfortable…). From the Potter’s I figured it would be easiest to floo over to my house, that way you all arrive together! If you could let me know if you’re coming, then we can work out times! Thanks! I look forward to seeing you!  
Remus_

So Lily ran downstairs deciding that she really did need to see her friends given all of the previous events.

"Hey Daddy?" she asked to her father who was sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper, though Lily wasn’t sure if he was actually reading or just staring.

"Yes Lils?"

"Can I go over to my friend Remus' on Sunday? His mother would come and pick me up."

"Of course, I think it's about time you hung out with your friends," Mr. Evans said, smiling slightly.

"Thanks Daddy," said Lily. She ran over and gave her father a quick hug before running upstairs to write a reply to Remus, and then she figured that she should respond to Severus and Alice's letters as well.

                                    ***

Sunday morning came around quickly, and Remus was excited. Everyone had said that they should be able to come, though, Adaline, Adrian and Sirius were not sure when they would arrive and Sirius was unable to sleep over. It would have been too high of a risk to take. But he was still surprised when he saw the flames in his fireplace turn green and Adaline jumped out and came sprinting at him, pulling him into a huge hug, and Adrian followed right behind her.

"Remus!" they yelled in an excited unison.

"Hey!" he said smiling, "How have you guys been?"

"Well, not too bad. We've spent almost all of our time in our room talking about absolutely nothing with the occasional boring dinner party," said Adrian.

"Sounds fun," Remus laughed.

"Definitely…" Adaline said sarcastically.

Just then the flames turned green again and Peter came out and joined the group.

"Hey guys!" he said, happily.

"Hey Pete!" Adaline said. She and Adrian ran and gave him a hug too.

"How have you guys been?" he asked.

"Great!" said Remus.

"Bored," said Adaline, Adrian nodding and they spent their time quickly catching up.

                                             ***

Lily sat around in her living room waiting for Mrs. Lupin to come and pick her up. Remus told her that his mom would be there around noon and it was 11:55. Just then the doorbell rang and Lily raced to the door only to find that it was Heather, Petunia's best friend.

"Hey Lily," she said, with fake politeness.

"Hi Heather," she said smiling, trying to hide her disappointment.

"HEATHER!" Petunia shrieked, and the two best friends hugged, and then walked out to Heather's car where her mom was waiting, you would have thought they hadn’t seen each other in months, not a few days.

And after they drove off there was a soft pop and Mrs. Lupin stepped out from behind the tree in her front yard.

"You must be Lily," she said smiling.

"Yes, and you must be Mrs. Lupin," said Lily, feeling giddy with excitement, she had never been to magical house before.

"Well, are you ready to go?" she asked.

"Yes, just give me a minute I need to lock the door," she said, pulling a key out of her pocket and locked the front door, "Alright, let's go."

"So Lily we are going to apparate, so I am going to need you to grab my arm and hold on as tight as you possibly can," said Mrs. Lupin, and Lily nodded, then grabbed her arm as hard as she could.

All of a sudden everything went black, and Lily felt like she was being pushed at from every different direction. It was by far one of the most uncomfortable things she had ever done. When it was over she felt absolutely nauseous afterwards.

When Lily caught her breath she looked around and saw a huge house, and could not stop her jaw from dropping. Who ever lived in this house was loaded with money! Then she looked around for the Potter's house. It suddenly dawned on her that it was the house in front of her. She was surprised, she had known that James was rich but she didn't that he was  _this_ rich. She was used to going to big houses for her father’s business dinners (though most of the time Petunia and her were left at home), but none of them came anywhere close to this.

But before she had time to take in much of the scenery, she and Mrs. Lupin made their way to the big oak door, and knocked. They did not have to wait long before the door flew open and Lily was pulled into a huge hug by Alice.

"LILY!" she said excitedly.

"ALICE!" said Lily, just as excited to see her.

"LILY!" yelled Gemma, and she too raced forward and pulled Lily into a tight hug.

"GEMMA!"

"Lily!" called James, and ran forward and greeted her.

"James!" said Lily, laughing, because he was supporting bright yellow hair.

Then a woman, who had James' exact hazel eyes and smile, walked up behind the kids.

"Hello, I am Isabel Potter. You must be Mrs. Lupin and you must be Lily."

"Hello Mrs. Potter," said Mrs. Lupin, smiling kindly.

"Please, call me Isabel," Mrs. Potter said. "Well, how about we go to the living room where you can floo over to the Lupin's. I'm sure you can't wait to see your friends."

They all nodded and headed inside the manor, which was just as beautiful and elegant as it was on the outside.

"Why don't you go first James," Mrs. Lupin suggested.

James did what he was told, and grabbed some green dust out of a bag on the mantel and then threw it into the flames. When the flames turned green he stepped into the flames, to Lily's horror.

"The Lupin Home!" he said clearly, and then he was gone, Gemma and Alice did the exact same thing and then Lily nervously made her way over to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of dust, which she assumed was floo powder. She threw it into the flames, and when they turned green, she nervously stepped into the flames and was pleasantly surprised that they did not burn her and that they were only a little warm.

Then very clearly she said, "The Lupin Home!"

And then everything started to spin, and she shut her eyes tightly, and prayed that it would be over soon. And it was.

"Lily!" Adrian and Adaline yelled in unison and both came running at her, pulling her into a hug.

"Hey Lily," said Remus, "How are you?"

"I'm not bad Remus, how about you?"

"I'm good, how has your break been?"

"Not great, but yeah…what about yours?"

"Boring," he replied, wondering what made Lily's break crummy, but the look on her face told him that she did not want to talk about it.

"So what do we want to do?" asked Sirius.

"Well, we could play Quidditch," said James, "I can floo home and get some extra brooms and we could play a game five against four!"

"Make it four against four, I don't really like flying, but you guys go ahead and play, I'll watch, it'll help me learn about Quidditch," said Lily, the thought of flying making her sick to her stomach after what happened to her mom.

"You sure? I thought you liked it," asked Remus, giving her a funny look.

"I'm sure, I don't like it anymore. I have a slight fear of heights…"

"Alright, I'll be back in about five minutes," said James and with that he went back home, and sure enough was back in five minutes, panting slightly, but with a giant grin on his face.

"So who wants to be the captains?" asked Remus.

"ME!" shouted James and Sirius at the same time.

"Okay, James and Sirius it is."

"I pick Remus!" said James.

"I get Pete!" said Sirius.

"I get Gemma!"

"I get Adrian!"

"I get Adaline!"

"Well, I get Alice!"

"Alright there's a place in the woods were we can play, though we won't have the hoops," said Remus.

"Who cares, we can make our own," said Sirius, just happy to be able to play for the first time this break, not even the cold hurting his mood.

And with that they all made their way to the forest and into a clearing. Lily climbed into a tree to watch. They picked what the hoops would be and played with a keeper for each team, Alice and Adaline and then three chasers. Then the game began, and Lily watched amused as they played and pushed each other off of their brooms, though Lily visibly flinched every time this happened. She wrapped her arms around herself to protect her from the cold, and to try and comfort herself.

After about an hour they stopped James, Gemma, Adaline and Remus won, though not by a lot.

"So now what do we want to do?" asked Remus, happily.

"Let's plan a prank!" said Sirius.

"Alright, any ideas…"

They continued to plan their back to school prank for about another two hours and when they were done they were quite happy with their idea.

"Okay I think that it is about time that we head home, our family will be eating dinner soon…" said Adaline sadly, and her and Adrian left, Sirius following shortly behind.

"Well we should probably head out too, have fun boys!" said Alice.

Then Gemma, Alice and Lily made their way to the fireplace. Mr. Potter was going to set up the floo network to her house for about an hour that night so that she could floo home.

So they all flooed back over to the Potters, and when they all arrived Gemma had an idea.

"Oh my gosh, Lily! You should spend the rest of your break here!" she said, excited, and Lily had to admit that that idea did sound quite appealing, because she knew that she would be home alone most of the time because her dad had just started up work again and was starting to work extremely long hours and Petunia would probably be at Heather's for the remainder of the break.

"Maybe, I would need to ask of course, and so would you…" said Lily, hoping it would be a yes.

"Aunt Isabel!" Gemma yelled, loudly.

"Yes Gemma?" asked Isabel, who just walked into the room, rolling her eyes at her nieces loud behavior.

"Gemma! You must not yell that loud, someone will go deaf!" scolded another woman, who had black hair, and actually looked similar to James, this, Lily assumed, was Gemma's mother.

"Yes mum, sorry. I was wondering if it was okay if Lily spent the rest of the week here, if it's okay with her parents…"

"Of course, we have plenty of room!" said Isabel Potter, a smile on her face, "Lily, dear, why don't you floo home and ask, then come back with the answer."

"Okay, thanks Mrs. Potter!" called Lily, grabbing a bag of floo powder from Gemma.

And the last thing Lily heard before she started spinning was, "Call me Isabel, dear!"

Lily arrived home and nearly gave her father a heart attack.

"Hey Daddy," she said, smiling.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Mr. Evans asked in shock.

"Not at all," she said, "Hey Dad, can I maybe stay at the Potters' for the rest of the week, Gemma and Alice want me to stay and Isabel assured me that it was alright."

"Isn't that that James boy's house?"

"Yeah, but Gemma's his cousin and Alice practically is too, and they're spending their break there too."

"Let me talk to Isabel first," he said, but Lily knew where this was going.

"Okay, I'll go and get her!" said Lily, and taking some floo powder from the little baggie Gemma gave her she flooed back to the Potters'.

"Isabel? My dad wanted to know if he could talk to you," said Lily when she re-appeared in the Potters' living room, well one of them (as she was told by Gemma).

"Of course, girls why don't you come with that way you can help Lily pack if her father says it's alright."

The girls nodded and they all flooed into the Evans' family room, and Lily suddenly felt self-conscious of how much smaller her family room (and she had always considered her family well off…) was compared to the one at the Potters', but no one else seemed to mind.

Lily sat and watched as her father and Isabel talked and finally her father turned to her, "Alright Lils. You can go, behave. I will see you when you come home for Ester."

"Thanks Daddy!" Lily said, and then she gave him a big hug and whispered, "I love you."

“I love you too baby girl, have fun at school at send me letters, I will see you soon, and please try and have fun, that’s what your mother would want,” he whispered back to her, giving her a squeeze before letting her go.

Then she ran up to her room with Gemma and Alice and they all quickly threw stuff into her trunk, in an un-orderly fashion, that would normally make Lily angry, but right now she could care less. They had everything packed in five minutes then they made their way down the stairs and back to the family room.

Mrs. Potter flooed back with her trunk, then Gemma and Alice followed and Lily turned to say goodbye to her father.

"Bye Daddy! I'll write to you from school! I love you, thanks!" she said and she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Bye Lils, behave, have fun and I love you too."

And then Lily went over to the fire place threw the floo powder in and said, "Potter Manor," and then felt the familiar sickening spinning sensation.


	17. Chapter 17

When the spinning sensation stopped Lily stepped out of the fireplace and steadied herself then she walked over where Gemma and Alice were standing talking to Isabel.

"Why don't you take Lily to her room. It can be one of the ones down by you guys," she said smiling.

"Thank you Isabel," Lily said and then the three girls took her trunk up a flight of stairs, then they turned right, and went up a smaller flight of stairs and came across a hallway with about eight rooms, four on each side.

They then walked to the third door on the right side and opened the door, the room was massive!

"Just imagine what color you want to be the theme and it will correspond with it, you can change certain aspects of it if you want, but the theme is easier," said Gemma, "My room is the room on your left side, we'll share a closet, Alice is on the right, you two will share a bathroom. Than Marie is across from Alice, and her older brother Neville's girlfriend Susanna is on the right of her."

"Okay thanks!" she said happily, then thinking about a deep shade of purple and the walls turned that exact shade.

"We'll be eating in about forty minutes, so we'll let you unpack and get ready for dinner," said Alice and she went to the door on the right side of the room, into the bathroom no doubt and Gemma went through the closet.

Lily walked over to the white desk in the room and put all of her quills, ink and parchment in the drawers, and then she put all of her books on the bookshelf. Then she made her way to the closet and hung up all of her clothes, and finally she went and put the rest of her stuff in the bathroom.

Once she was unloaded she walked over to her closet and picked out a nice outfit to wear, and by the time she was changed, it was time to go down stairs to eat.

Dinner was delicious, just like she figured it would be. Lily was really missing home cooked meals that weren’t made by Petunia or herself, or take out when her father attempted to cook.

"This dinner is delicious Isabel!" said Lily enthusiastically.

"Thank you Lily, dear, though I can not take all of the credit, our house elves, Periwinkle and Rusty, helped out a ton," she said modestly.

"So Lily, what is your favorite class?" asked Susanna.

"Well, I actually like them all, well, other than History of Magic, that class is kind of boring," she said.

"Is Professor Binns still teaching it?" asked Neville, "Because I heard that he passed away."

"He did…" said Gemma, "But he still teaches, and rumor has it that he never really realized he was dead."

"Oh, his class was boring when he was alive, I can't imagine how bad it is now that he's a ghost!" said Victor Potter, causing all of the kids to laugh, though earning him a stern look from Larraine Ryan.

"Victor! Don't set a bad example for the children!" she said, sternly rolling her eyes at her brother’s antics.

"Relax Larraine, you don't actually think that they pay attention in that class do you?" asked Hillary Prewett, smiling, "I seem to recall that you to busy flirting with Marcus."

"Well I ended up marring him didn't I?" said Larraine, smiling slightly, “So I guess taking the class was worth it.”

They all laughed and Gemma groaned saying, “I did not need to know that…now I will never be able to focus in that class…”

After dinner was over the five girls went back to their room, put on their pajamas and went to bed, all full, sleepy and happy.

* * *

Monday, the girls all went to Diagon Alley, Neville coming with them. They browsed around the stores, and bought a few things in Zonkos, such as more hair changing potion, and facial hair growth potion. Then they went and got ice cream, even though it was cold out, which made them extremely hyper. Then Lily and Gemma ended up dancing around the street, soon joined by Alice and Marie, and after taking pictures, Neville was dragged to join them by Susanna. While Susanna and Neville were dancing Alice grabbed the camera and took pictures of them, and after about ten minutes of random picture taking they walked back to the Leaky Cauldron and flooed back to the Potters' house.

When they arrived James was sitting in the family room, talking with his father.

"Lily?" he asked, happily when she exited the fireplace after Gemma.

"Hey James!" she said happily, still slightly hyper.

"Lily's going to spend the rest of break with us!" said Alice excitedly.

"Really?" asked James, his entire face lighting up.

"Yeah!" said Gemma, bouncing up and down.

"Wicked!" said James happily.

"When are my cousins coming over?" asked Alice.

"Tonight actually," said Victor, "Right after dinner, and I believe they are bringing their girlfriends."

"Oh, they're coming early this year," said Marie, happily.

"Everyone but Molly and Arthur, they are coming over on the 30th, but everyone else wanted to help set up for the party."

"Party?" asked Gemma confused.

"We decided that we would host a New Years Party," said Victor, happily.

"Wicked!" said James, again, "Can our friends come?"

"Of course! Why don't you owl them tonight and invite them!" said Victor.

And with that James ran off to write the letters, while the girls went to get some hot chocolate. And then they went to go and get ready for dinner and for Alice's cousins to arrive.

Dinner was just as delicious as it had been the night before, and Lily was happy to know that James had sent out his owl with the letters so he would probably be hearing back soon.

After dinner they each got a cup of hot chocolate (the girls ignoring James’ comments about them already having one earlier in the day), and sat by the fire listening to the parents telling stories about when they were at school. Apparently Professor McGonagall used to smile, Professor Dumbledore's beard was a short for about a month, and this amused the kids greatly.

"Hello!" came a voice from the doorway.

The voice belonged to the Head Boy, and Alice's cousin, Fabian. He had red hair, and was tall and slightly muscular. He had the same ocean blue eyes as Alice. Standing next to him was Dorcas Meadows, his girlfriend. She was short, and had poofy curly brown hair with green eyes. Next to Dorcas stood Marlene McKinnon, who was tall, with brown wavy hair and brown eyes, she was holding hands with Gideon, who was almost the exact replica of his brother, and behind them were Samantha and Justin Prewett, Justin had the same ocean blue eyes red hair, and build as both of his sons, while Samantha had kind brown eyes, was a little shorter, and was slightly plump.

They all went and greeted everyone, Alice introducing Lily to her family, whom all seemed very kind. They all stayed up late into the night talking, and catching up. They got to hear all about the Prewetts' (Alice's cousins' family, not hers) trip to France, which sounded lovely. Lily could not help but be envious, though it did make her a little sad, her mom had always wanted to go to France.

* * *

Adaline was lying on her bed staring at her ceiling, trying to come up with some excuse to get out of the New Years Party her family always had, but none came to her, and the fact that Adrian hadn't said anything meant that she probably hadn't either.

Just then Sirius walked through their bathroom door, and if this had not been a usual occurrence Adaline might have screamed.

"I take it you guys got James' letter?" he asked, brushing some soot off of his clothes.

"Yeah, we did, do you have any idea how to get out of the Annual New Years Party?"

"Sadly, I have not, if I say that I'm sick my mum would be suspicious and make Kreacher watch me. And we all know that elf hates me."

"To bad our parents never get drunk at these parties, then I would say we could wait until they were drunk to leave, but alas…" said Adrian groaning.

"So I take it this means we can't go…" said Sirius sadly.

"I think that sounds right…" said Adaline frowning.

"Okay, well floo if you figure something out…"

"You too…"

And with that Sirius walked over to the fireplace in Adaline's room, and flooded home. They had long ago figured out that if you say a specific room in a house that you want to floo to, it will take you there, which was extremely helpful when they were sneaking off to each others' houses.

"Do you want to write the reply to James, or do you want me to?" asked Adrian.

"You can do it," said Adaline, who had returned to staring at her ceiling.

And with that Adrian went to get some parchment and some ink to write their reply, really wishing that they could go.

* * *

"Adrian, Adaline, Sirius and Peter can't come!" said James, "They can't sneak off because they will all be at the Princes' party. Remus' will be here though."

"We could always sneak off to the Princes' house," said Gemma, "Adrian told me that when flooing over somewhere that if you say a specific room in a house, than as long as there's a fireplace in it, you will be able to floo directly into that room, so why don't we floo over into Adrian's room and hang out over there for say an hour, from like 10-11?"

"Gemma, there are some moments when I am happy I am related to you," said James.

"Aw, thanks Jamesie-Poo!" said Gemma grinning, causing Lily and Alice to laugh.

"And it is times like that, that I deny even knowing you," he said laughing, rolling his eyes as his cousin stuck her tongue out at him.

"So, I'll go write to them telling them they better be in Adrian's room at 10!" said James, running off.

Later that night Molly and Arthur Weasly, Molly being Fabian and Gideon's older sister, arrived with their son Bill, who was about a year old. They quickly announced that Molly was expecting a second child, which included lots of screeching and excitement, to which Lily just smiled, ignoring the pang in her chest at Samantha’s excitement for her daughter.

* * *

Adrian and Adaline immediately flooed over to Sirius' house, after they sent a reply back to James' telling them to come, because they knew that he would be just as excited about this as they were.

When they got into his room they found it empty, so they went and sat on his bed and waited for him to come upstairs, and got excited when they heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Sirius Black, we are going to find you something to wear tomorrow, I will not allow you to go in jeans! You will be wearing a set of dress robes!"

"But mum! Jeans are so much comfier! What if I wore them with a nice shirt?" Sirius whined.

And by how loud their voices were, it sounded as though they were right by the door, and Adrian and Adaline shared a panicked look and dove off of the bed and then slid under it just as the door whipped open. They both held their breath hoping that Walburga Black would not look under the bed for some form of clothing. They both knew that Sirius had a habit of shoving things under his bed, and they assumed that his mother knew the same thing. Unfortunately they didn’t have time to move.

"How about these?" she asked, and Adrian, peering under the bed, saw that she was holding up a pair of violet dress robes, and Adrian had to stuff her fist into her mouth to keep from laughing.

With a look of disgust Sirius shook his head, "No, can I wear the blue ones?"

"Fine," said Walburga, for once in her life, compromising.

With that she exited the room and Sirius punched his pillow, while the girls exited out from the bed in giggles.

Sirius almost jumped from the shock of seeing them, but he reframed.

"Did you think of something?"

"Sort of, they are going to come to my room, at about 10, and stay until 11," said Adrian.

"Really?"

"Yeah," said Adaline excitedly.

They then heard people walking up the stairs, and the girls looked at each other than ran to the fireplace and flooed back home, leaving Sirius to jump on his bed, grabbing the Quidditch magazine on his night stand. The flames had just disappeared when the door opened to reveal his father.

"Who were you talking to?" Orin Black asked.

"Myself," replied Sirius, causally.

"Yourself?"

"Yes, I believe that's what I said," he replied, earning a glare from his father.

"Then if you, like you say, were talking to yourself, you wouldn't mind if I looked around your room?"

"Not at all."

So Orin took a quick look around and when he realized no one was there he glared at his son and exited the room.

* * *

Before anyone knew it, it was 10 o'clock on New Years Eve and Lily, Gemma, Alice, James, and Remus found themselves in the Potters' living room, getting ready to floo.

"I'll go first," said Gemma, and they all nodded and off she went.

She was soon followed by Lily, then James, then Remus and lastly Alice. And they smiled and shared hugs when they found their friends.

After about a half an hour they decided to play truth or dare.

"James, truth or dare?" asked Adrian.

"Dare!"

"Okay, I dare you to go and put on a pair of Adaline's underwear, and wear them for the rest of the time you're here!"

"Why mine?" whined Adaline.

"Because, there was no way I was putting him in mine!" Adaline just glared at her sister as James got up and went to change.

When he got back he looked at Lily, "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Why do you suddenly hate flying?" he asked, but regretted it as soon as he saw tears in her eyes, which earned him a glare from Alice, Gemma, Adrian and Adaline, “Ummm, you can pass if you want…”

"Because…my mom died in a plane crash…" she said, wiping her eyes furiously, taking a deep breath to try and calm herself, while everyone looked at her in shock.

"Wait, we met your mom!" said Sirius, "Was she just a step mom?"

"No, that was my mom, she died on her way to visit my Grandma, on the same day you guys came over actually. She left that night but her plane crashed…" said Lily, and everyone moved to hug her, which she was kind of thankful for, and though she hated the pity, she was happy that she told them it was nice to have a support system, "Now Sirius, truth or dare?" Lily asked, changing the subject, not quite wanting to talk about it.

"Dare," he replied instantly.

"I dare you to go and kiss Alice on the cheek!"

So that's what he did, and Alice looked disgusted.

Their game continued until 11 o'clock when they had to leave, and they had to go downstairs and join their family and friends. Otherwise someone would get suspicious and they would get caught. Also, the rest of them knew that they couldn’t miss that much of the Potter’s party.

* * *

The rest of the break went by quickly, Remus had stayed the rest of his break with the Potters' and one night before they had to go back things were absolutely crazy. They were all running around the house looking for socks and uniforms and the minute their heads hit their pillows they were instantly asleep, all looking forward to starting the next term and being able to see all of their friends without hiding.

 

* * *

**Wow, it has been a while hasn't it. Well, I am currently working on the sequel (well, this is more of a prequel...but still) But I have been back at school which meas updates are harder to do! Hopefully you enjoyed this kind of light chapter! :)**


	18. Chapter 18

The next morning at the Potter's was crazy; everyone was running around like crazy trying to pack all of their last minute things into their trunks, because they all gave up last night. Isabel and Victor Potter were laughing silently, remembering what it was like for them when they were in school.

Jake was sitting on the floor throwing a fit about not being able to go to Hogwarts, while Lily, being the only organized one, and ready, was trying to calm him down.

All of the other adults had to go to work and the older kids who were out of Hogwarts had training to go to, thus leaving Victor and Isabel in charge of all of the kids that were currently running around like crazy.

"Kids! We need to go NOW!" yelled Isabel over Jakes wails, and Lily's calming voice, as well as the sound of running feet, "What happened to being ready last night?"

There was no reply, but soon all of the kids showed up in the living room, and they all made their way outside to where the Ministry cars were waiting and after they were all in, they made their way to Kings Cross Station.

Adaline was sitting on her bed looking around her purple room for anything that she might have forgotten that she might need before they departed for Kings Cross.

"Do you think that I could fit in your trunk?" asked Henry from the doorway.

"Sorry Henry, Mum and Dad would murder me when they found out that I took you to that 'horrible excuse of a place to live' or in other words the Gryffindor tower," she replied with a sad smile on her lips, remembering how badly she had wanted to leave last year.

"Can you tell me about the Gryffindor common room again?" asked Henry, looking at her with his wide blue eyes, enjoying hearing about a common room that wasn’t the Slytherin common room.

"Sure," said Adaline, and then walking over to her queen sized bed she sat down and beckoned Henry to do the same, "To get into the common room you go to the portrait of the Fat Lady, then you give her the password and she will swing open revealing a doorway. The doorway will lead you into the common room, which is a cozy circular room with portraits on the walls and comfy couches and chairs by the big fireplace, and by those are small end tables where you can play chess and exploding snap. There are also seats by the windows and plenty of tables for you to do your work at."

"Though that table is normally used for games and from what I've heard at parties..." she stopped talking when she saw the glare that Adaline was sending her, "Well most people just do there homework at breakfast or lunch, depending on which class it's for."

"No, that is only the procrastinators," said Adaline.

"So most of the school..."

"Yeah..."

This caused the three of them to laugh.

"Anyways, Adaline, do you have in room left in your trunk? Mines full..."

"Fine, put it in there NEATLY."

"Thanks!" said Adrian and she threw her stuff in her sister's trunk while Adaline just rolled her eyes at her sisters terrible organization skills.

"Guys, it's time to go," said Annabeth snootily from the doorway.

"Alright," they all said, and they made their way down to their living room, where they waited for their parents to arrive so that they could make their way to Kings Cross.

                                             ***

Sirius was dashing around his room like a mad man, he had completely procrastinated his packing, until an hour before they left just to spite his dear old mother, whom had told him to pack yesterday. He knew that he shouldn’t do it, he knew he was going to regret it, but he decided he needed one more defiant act before he left.

That plan was going smoothly up until the point that she came and knocked on his door telling him that he needed to get ready because they decided that they wanted to leave a half an hour early. So now he had to pack and get ready in a half an hour, and he was definitely regretting not packing sooner. That would explain how his outfit was so un-matching, he was wearing a pair of green shorts with an orange shirt, and just as he was about to change into something, a little more presentable his mother yelled for him.

"Sirius Black!" she yelled, "We are leaving with or with out you! Get down here right now!"

Knowing that she meant what she said, he quickly threw a black cloak over his horrendous outfit and ran to his door.

"Coming!" he shouted downstairs so that his family would wait.

Then he raced to the top of the stairs, jumping onto his trunk to close it then he pushed it down the stairs knowing that it would make his mother angry, and knowing full yell he was going to get yelled at in 3...2...1...and-

"SIRIUS ORIN BLACK! I HAVE TOLD YOU BEFORE NOT TO PUSH YOUR TRUNK DOWN THE STAIRS! NOW GO AND GET INTO THE CAR BEFORE WE ARE LATE! AND I WILL EXPECT YOU TO BE ON YOUR BEST BEHAVIOR AT THE TRAIN STATION BECAUSE IF YOU ARE NOT YOU WILL BE STUCK IN YOU ROOM FOR ALL OF SUMMER BREAK!" she yelled, Sirius smiling inwardly, though unable to control cringing at the loudness and pitch of her voice, and the idea of being 'locked' in his room all summer.

"Yes mother, I am so sorry, I forgot," he said, in a fake sweet voice, that was dripping with sarcasm, but he was dragging his trunk out the door before his mother realized it, and had the chance to yell at him, Sirius knew that she wouldn’t yell at him once they were outside the house because that would ruin their ‘perfect’ image.

"Hey Reg," Sirius said sitting down next to his brother after he put his trunk in the trunk of the car.

"Hey Sirius!" his brother said cheerfully, then he asked, "You will remember to write to me this term, right?"

"Of course, I did last term didn't I? Remember I actually like you..." Sirius said, earning a grin from his brother.

Just then his parents entered the car and they were off, Sirius and Regulus no longer talking.

                                             ***

Peter had been packing his things into his trunk for about a week, out of pure boredom. His father had been at 'work' for most of the break, and he highly doubted that all of it was work for the Ministry considering he had never had to work this much in past years, and when he was at home he was in his study discussing things in hushed voices, and Peter had a feeling he did not want to know what was going on in that room.

He hadn't heard from his mother since Christmas, and had finally coming terms with the fact that she wasn't coming back, and that she hadn't cared about him enough to come back or stay. Not that he completely blamed her, he wouldn’t come back either.

"Hello Peter," said a familiar voice.

Peter slowly turned around, not daring to believe that it was her.

"Mum?" he asked, turning to face the familiar face of his mother, though it was now much thinner and paler than it had been before.

"Hi sweetie," she said, smiling.

Peter was in shock, "What are you doing here? I thought you left..."

"Your father convinced me to come back, and I hated being away from you for that long, I promise it will not happen again," she said, with sorrow in her eyes.

Peter quickly ran over to his mother and hugged her, though he was surprised when her found that she was indeed solid and he wasn't dreaming, that fact put a huge grin on his face.

"Now let's go, you don't want to miss the train do you?"

And with that the two of them dragged his trunk down the hall and then down the grand staircase. They then made their way to the garage where his father was waiting and the three of them made their way to station, Peter happier than he had been all break.

                                             ***

When they arrived at Kings Cross Station they quickly grabbed trolleys and then made their way to the barrier. Lily went through first and was followed closely by Remus, then Alice, Marie close behind, then Gemma with Jake, who was clinging to her, James and lastly Victor and Isabel.

The Platform was full of teary-eyed parents, sobbing younger siblings who all wanted to go to Hogwarts but were to young, and friends hugging after not seeing each other for two weeks.

"Now James, promise me you wont get into to much trouble?" his mother said, smiling warmly at him.

"I wont mum, don't worry."

"And the rest of you, I hope that I will be able to see you soon!" she said, embracing all of the kids.

Last she hugged James and gave him a kiss on his cheek, leaving a lipstick mark, to which he scrubbed furiously trying to get it off.

"Thank you so much for everything!" said Lily, thankful for Isabel Potter more than she will probably ever know, in this week she had acted like a second mother to Lily, which was something she so desperately needed.

"Yeah! Thanks so much!" said Remus, grinning.

"Bye!" said Alice and they all rushed to get onto the train and find a compartment big enough for all of them.

                                             ***

When the Black family arrived on the Platform they stood in the back waiting for the rest of the Blacks, the Malfoys, the Snapes, and the Princes to arrive, and they luckily did not have to wait long.

The Blacks were the first to Arrive, Octans Black in the lead, followed by his wife Ara, Bellatrix and Narcissa following close behind, both grinning. Sirius really wished Andy had come home for Christmas, she was really the only normal family he had, and she was three years older than him.

"Octans," Orin nodded at his brother.

"Walburga," said Ara, smiling and they broke into small talk pretending to like each other (well, that’s what Sirius thought because he couldn’t imagine anyone actually enjoying his mother’s presence).

Next to arrive were the Malfoys, Draco in the lead with Gemini following close behind, next came Antlia who was in her third year, along with Bellatrix, and Lucius was following behind her smirking.

The Snapes were not far behind them, Carina and Severus only because Leo had to work that day. Though judging by how often he was working, Sirius just assumed he was no longer in the picture at all.

Last to arrive were the Princes, Serpens was leading the way, talking aimlessly with Alexander, and following them was Aquila who was holding Jamie, and talking with Juliet, following them were Annabeth, Heather and Abigail, and lastly, much to Sirius' relief were Henry, Adrian and Adaline.

Sirius immediately made his way over to Henry, Adaline and Adrian, grinning.

They stayed and talk for a short while then they said their goodbyes to Henry and Regulus then made their way quickly onto the train to find their friends.

                                    ***

Peter was the first of their friends to arrive in their compartment.

"Peter!" Alice yelled, and her, Gemma and Lily all ran and gave him a huge hug.

"Hey," he gasped out.

"Girls, I don't think he can breathe," Remus said, concerned for his friend.

When they pulled away from Peter he asked, "Did you finish all of the planning for the prank?"

"It's ready, we can send it out tonight," James said grinning wickedly.

"It's ready?" asked an excited Sirius from the doorway.

"It is," said Remus, and the three girls ran and attacked the three new comers.

"Really?" Sirius choked out.

"Really," Gemma confirmed as the got off of their friends.

"Wicked..." said Adrian.

They continued to talk for a while, laughing and enjoying each other’s company freely.

About and hour into the train ride Lily got up and said, "I'm going to find Sev, I haven't talked to him in a while."

"I'll come with you!" said Adaline getting up.

And just as they got up there was a knock on the compartment door, which Lily opened.

"SEV!" Lily said excitedly, throwing her arms around him.

"Hi Lils," he said, smiling.

"We were just going to come and find you," said Adaline.

"Wanna go take a walk around the train?" he asked

"Let's go!" said Lily and they made their way out, "So how was your Christmas?"

"It was good, my father had to work, like always, but that's all, how about yours, you hardly replied to any of my letters! I was worried!"  
"Sorry Sev, it wasn't too bad, my Dad, Tuney and I opened presents and my Grandma Daisy came over for dinner. Then after that I spent the rest of break at the Potters' so I didn't really have much time to reply to your letters," she said, ignoring the way he rolled his eyes at the mention of the Potters.

"What about your mum?" he asked, but regretted it when he saw tears form in her eyes, which she wiped away immediately.

"She died in a plane crash…" said Lily bluntly, and Severus and Adaline gave her quick hugs.

"Well…I should get going…” said Severus, some what awkwardly and with that he left and the two girls made their way back to their compartment.

Soon after they came back the food trolley came, and Gemma and Sirius both stood up and pushed and shoved each other trying to get there first causing both of them to fall over, James and Peter tried next, only to be dragged to the ground by Sirius and Gemma, next Lily and Adaline tried, but they too ended up on the ground, but while those two were falling Remus and Alice took their chance and dove at the trolley lady.

It took them ten minutes to get all of the candy they wanted, and when they did they kind old trolley lady walked away shaking her head, while all of them put all of their candy in the middle and immediately started eating it.

They had only just finished their candy when the pulled into Hogsmeade station, and walked over to where Hagrid was calling all of the first years. They quickly made their way to the boats and road them to the school, but when they got there, instead of walking into the left side room like they had done at the beginning of the year they walked right into the hall.

"Why did we need to take the boats? Couldn't we just take the carriages like the rest of the school?" asked Sirius.

"Because it's a Hogwarts tradition that the first years take the boats to school, I read about it in  _Hogwarts, A History_ ," said Adaline, "The only reason that we didn't take them to Hogsmeade Station for break was because the Lake was completely frozen over."

"You actually read that?" asked Sirius, "No one reads that book!"

"Hey, I read it!" said Lily, in fake outrage.

"Me too!" said Remus.

"See! I'm not alone!" said Adaline laughing.

"How did you actually manage to read through that? Andy told me it is the most boring book EVER!" Sirius said.

"Well I wanted to learn everything that I could about Hogwarts before I came, not just what Sev had told me about…" Lily defended.

"It didn't completely bore you out of your mind?" asked James, in complete shock.

"No…I thought it was interesting…" said Adaline.

"Me too!" said Lily, thankful that someone understood her.

"I didn't…" said Remus laughing, and the other two girls glared at him playfully.

"See he knows what he's talking about!" said James, causing them all to laugh.

Before anyone could continue the conversation the food had shown up and everyone decided that eating was more important than talking, seeing as they were all working on stuffing there faces with as much food as they could possibly fit in their mouths.

After everyone had finished desert and were practically falling asleep at the table Professor Dumbledore stood up to make his speech.

"It is so great to have all of you back, I do hope that you enjoyed your Christmases as much as I did, and as much as I would love to talk about everyone's Christmas you all look like you are about to fall asleep, so off to bed! Goodnight!"

And with a sigh of relief the entire hall got up and made their ways to their common rooms, most to go up to sleep, though a select few stayed up and were hanging out in their common rooms. Among this select few were the Gryffindor first years, who were all sitting in a circle by a window with an owl and a package, whispering in hushed voices, wearing mischievous smirks. They soon tied the package onto the black owl and sent it off, and then tired, they made their ways to bed, saying a quick, mumbled goodnight.

The next morning the nine of them made their way to the Gryffindor table, smirking and laughing, and they all kept looking up to the ceiling to see if the owl post was coming.

"Um…guys why you keep looking up at the ceiling?" asked Tyler as he Candice and Frank sat down next to them.

"Well you see…" said James, and they told them about their prank earning laughter and high fives from the three second years.

And then they all continued to look up for the owl post.

Severus Snape had been eating peacefully, listening to his peers bickering about everything, when a black owl landed next to him and in front of the blonde hair Narcissa Black. The owl was carrying a box, which was immediately torn open to reveal freshly made chocolate chip cookies. And being in Slytherin, if you got food from your family, you had no choice but to share (more like everyone would steal one), so naturally the entire table flooded over and the cookies were gone in a matter of seconds.

But just as soon as the cookies were gone they started to notice that everyone's hair had been changed to a funky color and the entire hall was laughing, though no one was laughing as hard as the Gryffindor first and second years. There was no doubt in Severus' mind that the first year Gryffindors had pulled the prank, but he also knew that it was the four boys who had come up with the idea, and had some how forced the girls to join in, because Lily and Adaline would never be apart of anything like this. He knew that those boys were changing his friends, and he hated them for it, well even more than he already had.

That morning Transfiguration went by quickly and soon the Gryffindor first years found themselves in the dungeons for Potions with the, now normal haired, Slytherins.

While Professor Slughorn was lecturing Lily felt a note hit her head, and ignoring Adrian and Adaline's questioning looks she unfolded the note and read:  _Why did you do it? I thought you hated that kind of stuff…-Sev_

She shook her head, she really should have seen this coming, so she replied:  _I don't mind when no one gets hurt, it was a harmless joke Sev. I'm sorry I didn't have time to warn you about it this morning, it wasn't meant for you._

She did feel kind of bad about lying, the prank had been intended for the entire Slytherin table, but she really did not want Sev to be mad at her…

_It wasn't funny, you embarrassed all of us, you embarrassed me…_

Now she was starting to feel slightly guilty… _I'm sorry Sev…_

_It's not your fault. I think that you being friends with those boys is a bad idea, all it's going to do is get you into trouble…_

_Look, I appreciate you looking out for me and all, but you don't even know them! They are my friends, and I'm sorry but you are going to have to deal with it!_   
  


_Fine! But don't say I didn't warn you…_

And with one final glare she tore up the note and continued to take notes on Slughorn's lecture, angry that Sev thought that he could tell her what to do and who to be friends with. The Slytherin’s hair was all un-dyed by the time the first lesson rolled around, there was no harm done. It was a lot nicer than the pranks that the Slytherin’s had played on them. 


	19. Chapter 19

January passed quickly, and before anyone knew it Valentines Day was upon them. Lily had had an emotional few months, but was thankfully feeling a little better. Of course, she still missed her mom like crazy, and the idea of flying petrified her, but she no longer felt guilty for smiling and being happy, because she knew that was what her mother would have wanted.

"I wish we were third years..." said Alice wistfully, as they walked passed a group of third year girls gossiping about what they were going to do with their boyfriends that day.

"Me too..." agreed Adaline.

"I can't wait to see the Great Hall!" said Lily, "I read that they decorate it!"

“They do that for every holiday Lily,” Sirius said, rolling his eyes at his friend’s excitement.

“So I guess the question is do they consider this a Holiday?” Peter asked.

"Well I guess that we'll find out..." said Adrian, as she pushed open the giant oak door leading into the Great Hall.

When they walked in they found that the Great Hall had indeed been decorated. There were cut out hearts falling from the ceiling in red, white, and pink, as well as strings of them hung on the walls.

"Wow..." said Gemma, "This makes me want to vomit..."

This caused her friends to laugh.

"Agreed Gem," said James, the boys all nodding in their agreement, "The only good thing about today is the fact that we get to get out of classes."

Professor Dumbledore then stood up and announced, "Don't forget that dinner will be five this evening for the third years and younger, and that all of the students fourth year or older, unless of course you have an older date, will be eating at the annual Valentines Day Ball, which will start at seven tonight."

Everyone nodded at the Professor to show that they had heard him and some of the older students even cheered.

"So what are we going to do today?" Sirius asked the girls.

"Well I was going to go to the Library and study..." said Lily.

"I'll come!" Adaline said immediately.

"Me too, I have that Potions essay for Professor Slughorn that needs to get done," said Remus.

"Well that sounds incredibly boring..." said James, "Whose up for playing sardines in the corridors?"

"ME!" screamed Sirius, earning him multiple funny looks.

"I'd do that!" said Gemma, Adrian and Alice nodding in agreement.

"Same," said Peter.

"Can you guys wait to play for about two hours?" asked Lily, "That will give me enough time to study for the day, then I will join you guys."

"Can't you not study for a day?" asked Gemma.

"No! I cannot! Exams are coming up, and I must be prepared! I don’t want to fail! I would never be able to look my sister in the eye again!" said Lily.

"Exams! You're already studying for exams! Those aren't for another 5 months!" said Sirius in complete shock.

"Yes, well, I need to do well on my exams, preferably all O's," said Lily.

"Fine, we will give you guys an hour!" said James, "Meet us in the Common Room."

And with that Remus, Adaline and Lily all made a mad dash to the Library, hoping to get as much work into the hour as they possibly could. And after fifty minutes they made their way back to the common room, where they promised they would meet everyone.

"Are you guys ready to play?" asked Sirius, who was nearly jumping off of the walls with excitement.

"Yeah," said Adaline, "What are the rules?"

"You can go anywhere in the castle, one person is it and they go hide, they will have a minute to hide, and then everyone else will go and try and find them, then once you find them, you will hide there with them there and the last person there will be it next, any questions?" asked James.

"Nope!" said Alice, excitedly.

"I'll go first!" says Peter, grinning widely, and once everyone agreed he ran off.

Everyone counted for 60 seconds and were off, Alice and Gemma ran off to the third floor to look for him, Adrian and Adaline ran to the seventh floor in hopes of finding him there, Remus and Sirius were off to the first floor looking for him there, and Lily and James ran off to the kitchens hoping to find him there, I mean, who wouldn't want to eat while they were hiding?

* * *

"Did you check behind that suit of armor?" asked Alice.

"Yes, Ali I did!" said Gemma, using her and James' old nickname for her, which only those two could get away with calling her (she really hated it, but since they had been calling her it for so long she had accepted it from them).

"I was just checking!" said Alice, slightly annoyed, they had been running around the third floor for about five minutes, and there had yet to be a sign of him anywhere, "Let's try the second floor..."

With a nod the two girls were off, sprinting towards the second floor.

About halfway there Alice stopped mid run and asked, "Hey Gem, you don't think that he would be in the kitchens do you?"

Gemma looked at her and then they started sprinting towards the kitchens, it seemed like a logical place to hide to both of them.

* * *

"Adaline, I don't think that he's up here!" Adrian shouted after she opened yet another broom closet, only to find it empty.

"Where do you think we should look next?"

"How about the forth floor? I'm not so sure he would have ran all the way up here..."

"Alright, lets go and look there..."

And the two girls set off towards the forth floor, hoping that they would find him there.

* * *

"Remus," Sirius whispered, "There's a noise coming from that broom closet, maybe he's in there..."

"What if it's just one of the older kids, I've seen some of them walking out adjusting their clothing..."

"I doubt that, who would do that kind of thing on the first floor?" asked Sirius and with that he swung open the door.

Once the door was open, screams of alarm could be heard, along with a quick shuffling of feet.

"I stand corrected..." said Sirius in a whisper, looking both terrified and amused.

"Make a run for it?" Remus offered in a quick whisper, as the two older students were finally some what decent and now glaring at the two first years.

"On the count of three..." Sirius breathed, "One...two...THREE!"

And with that they went sprinting towards the sixth floor hoping avoid the two older students at all coasts.

Once they reached the safety of the sixth floor Remus said, "I don't think that we should go opening anymore broom closets..."

"Agreed, but when I'm older, I think I know where I'll be...I mean they looked pretty shocked, I don't think that people generally look in that broom closet..."

This caused both boys to laugh and continue on their way, now very cautious when looking around.

* * *

Lily and James where at the kitchens quickly, and when they got to tickling the pear they were in quite a shock when they found the kitchens completely empty, well other than the House Elves.

"James, I don't think that he's in here..." said Lily, slightly disappointed, they were sure that he would have hidden in the kitchens, they would have.

"Well, let's get a quick bite to eat while were in here..." said James, and Lily just gave him a really funny look, but then she saw James' eyes widen in shock and turned around to where Peter was hiding under the table, and they both sprinted towards it.

* * *

Gemma and Alice reached they kitchens soon after and hide by everyone, next they were joined by Adrian and Adaline, then finally by Remus and Sirius who pushed and shoved each other until they reached the table, Sirius getting there first.

"SARDINES!" everyone yelled at Remus, who grinned.

"I don't know about you guys but I'm hungry..." said James, and with that their game was forgotten and they all ordered food from the over willing House Elves, and talked.

* * *

Later that night after they had been sent to their common rooms when all of the older students were leaving for the ball, the girls were all sitting on the coach, gushing about all of the dress as they walked by, and no one knew why Sirius and Remus randomly ducked as a sixth year couple walked by, and the girl burst into giggles when she saw them.

"Hey guys!" Candice said, as she sat down next to them Frank and Tyler, right next to her.

"Hey!" Lily said, waving at them happily.

"What are you guys up to?" asked Tyler.

"Nothing, we're trying to figure out what we can do, any ideas?" said James.

"We could play truth or dare!" said Adrian, excited.

"Why not?" said Frank and with that they started, "Candice, truth or dare?"

"Dare," she said grinning.

"I dare you to go up into the seventh year boys dormitory and steal something, then put it in the common room," Frank said grinning evilly.

Candice nodded, then made her way to the boys stair case, where with one last wink, she made her way quickly up the stairs, only to return with t-shirt, and then she used the sticking charm and hung it to the wall.

"Happy?" she asked Frank grinning.

"Yes," he said, chuckling.

"James, truth or dare?"

"Dare," he said, smiling.

"I dare you to go to the stair case in your dress robes, and to get an older student to take you to the ball," she said, smiling.

James nodded and ran up to his room to change then he winked and walked out of the common room, his friends following behind him, then hide behind a wall as he went to stand in the front waiting for a girl to walk by.

James didn't need to wait long, as a group of forth year Hufflepuffs came walking by, and thats when he knew what to do. He instantly, pretended to wipe away fake tears.

"Are you okay?" asked one of them.

"I'm fine," he said, "I was just really excited to go to the dance, but my date stood me up..."

"Well, why don't you go with me?" she asked kindly.

"Well if that's okay with you...I have no problem going with you, you're much prettier than she was anyways..."

"It's not a problem..." she said, and with a final wink James escorted her into the Great Hall, leaving his friends shocked that he managed to pull that off.

* * *

"How on earth did he manage that?" asked Tyler, "That was brilliant!"

"I know! You think it would work for us?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know..." said Tyler, and they both grinned at each other, and they instantly shared a look and the two of them ran up to their dorms, changed and ran back downstairs, then with a quick wave too their friends they were off.

"Look at what you just caused!" Remus said, laughing.

"Sorry," she said laughing.

"Now that James isn't here whose turn is it?" asked Adrian.

"It can be yours!" said Candice.

"Okay! Lily, truth or dare?" Adrian asked.

"Truth," she said.

"Way to be boring Lily!" she teased, and they laughed, "Well, who do you think is the hottest Gryffindor is?"

"Jonathon McLaggen!" she said, blushing slightly.

"Really, I always thought that Connor Wood was the hottest!" said Candice.

"It's definitely close..." said Adaline.

Their game continued until all of the older students arrived around midnight, thankful that today happened to be a Friday, and the three boys were all grinning like idiots, proud of themselves for getting dates with older girls.

 

* * *

 

And here we go, another chapter because it's Halloween... 


	20. Chapter 20

The rest of February passed quickly, and before they knew the snow was melting and the weather was warming up as March arrived, and March quickly faded into the stormy month of April. All of the first years stayed at school during the Easter Holidays, claiming they had to study, though in truth Lily, Adaline and Remus were the only ones that had even started. In fact that is what they were currently doing.

Adrian, Gemma, Alice, James and Sirius were all swimming in the lake, because they were finally having nice weather, while Peter, Remus, Lily and Adaline were all sitting by the tree and studying.

"I can't take this anymore!" said Lily, slamming her book shut, "I think I will go meet up with Sev and study in the Library."

They just nodded, and Lily put her books in her bag, slung it over her shoulder and walked back into the castle. She made it to the Library quickly, and then to the back corner where she and Severus normally sat, hoping that he would be sitting there, and sure enough, he was.

"Hey Sev," said Lily, smiling at her friend as she took the seat across from him, then took out her defense books and notes that she was currently studying.

"Hey Lils, studying Defense?"

"Yeah, that will be my first exam…"

"Lily you realize exams are still about six weeks away right?" asked Severus.

"Yeah, but I need to study early, otherwise I will procrastinate studying, and I can't do that! Then I will fail!"

"Lily, I'm sure you would be fine studying three weeks in advanced, you're the smartest girl in the year…"

"Thanks Sev, but I will feel better knowing that I studied."

                                             ***

Back outside, Remus put down his book, "I can't take this anymore!"

And he took off his shirt and ran into the water joining the rest of their friends, Peter getting up and following close behind, while Adaline packed her stuff up and head off towards the Library.

"Finally decided to put your books down?" asked James, laughing.

"Yeah…" said Peter, "I can only study for so long!"

"I wonder how the girls do it, they have hardly put their books down since the teachers mentioned exams last week!" said Sirius.

"I know I'll study a couple weeks ahead of time, but not six…" said Gemma, while all of her friends shot her a look that clearly said ‘will you really?’ which she ignored.

"Oh well…" said Adrian laughing, then, when he wasn't expecting it, swam over and dunked Sirius.

This caused in entire chain reaction. She quickly swam away from him, causing him to grab Alice, thinking it was Adrian, and to pick her up and throw her, and seeing James' laughing face, she swam, and pulled his feet out from under him, and he grabbed on to Peter, who grabbed Gemma, who grabbed Remus, in the end, they ended up splashing, dunking and throwing each other for another hour.

                                                      ***

"Hey guys, can I join you?" asked Adaline.

"Of course," said Severus, Lily nodding in agreement, though not looking up from her notes.

"Thanks," she replied, and she sat down, and like Lily took out her Defense stuff.

They stayed in the Library until dinnertime, and then Adaline and Lily made their way to the Gryffindor common room and Severus made his way to the Slytherin common room.

"Hey guys!" said Lily; sitting down next to Alice, Adaline wasn't hungry so she was going to continue to study in the common room.

"Wow, she came to dinner!" said Sirius.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

"Well, you've had your nose in those books of yours studying, you never know…"

"Well sorry I want to pass my exams!" said Lily defensively.

"I do too, but you don't find me studying at every waking moment!"

Lily glared at Sirius, and stormed out of the Great Hall deciding that she would eat in the kitchens.

"Wow, if she's this crazy now imagine what she'll be like closer to exams…" said Sirius, his eyes wide in fright.

A week before the exams everyone could be seen studying, even Sirius had looked at Remus' notes, not having taken any himself, and refusing to open a book. But soon exams were upon them. They had Defense first, in the morning they had the written test, that afternoon they took the practical. Tuesday they had Potions, and all they had to do was brew a simple potion, and in the afternoon they had the Herbology exam, which was a written exam. Wednesday they had Transfiguration, in the morning written and in the afternoon practical, then that night they took the Astronomy practical. That Thursday they had the Charms practical in the morning, and the written in the afternoon. And finally on Friday they took the History of Magic Exam.

When the bell signaling that exams were over everyone cheered.

"FINALLY!" shouted Sirius.

"I know!" said James, and they followed the rush of students heading outside.

"I think that I did alright on that one, I know I messed up the two Goblin wars though…" said Lily.

"I think I did alright too, I think I messed up on who started them…" said Adaline, and they continued to discuss the exam.

"Guys!" Gemma said, "The test is over there's nothing you can do! So please stop talking about it!"

They just nodded.

"Well, what do we want to do? I mean, we still have a week left of school…"

"More like a week left of freedom," said Adrian, "Besides it's not really school we don't have classes, it just gives the Professors time to grade our exams, and give us our results…they have the older students exams to grade into the summer…”

"Fair enough…" said James.

"I know what we could do!" said Sirius, "We could go around to all of the bathrooms and take some toilet paper, I have an idea…"

"Sirius, what on earth can we do with all of that toilet paper?" asked Alice.

"Oh Alice, I have a plan…"

Alice just shrugged, and took off towards the girls bathrooms, Gemma, Adrian, Adaline, and Lily all following close behind, when they go to a bathroom they would take three rolls off of the shelf, and put them in someone's bag, and then continue on. It took them an hour to get all of the toilet paper stuffed in all of their bags and then to get back to the common room where the boys were waiting for them.

"Let's go to dinner, I'm starved!" said Sirius, and his friends just glared, all wanting to know what they were going to do.

So they had no choice but to follow Sirius down to dinner.

"Are you going to tell us what it is we're doing?"

"Fine…" he said grudgingly, "We are going to sneak out and tepee the Slytherin common room…"

"Um, Sirius I hate to burst your bubble, but, we don't know the password," said Lily.

"I know just the thing, Sirius and I can camp out under my invisibility cloak!" said James.

"You have an invisibility cloak?" said Sirius in awe.

"Yeah, I got it for Christmas!"  
"And you didn't tell us?"

"Sorry, it slipped my mind, and there hasn't really been an opportunity to use it…"

“YOU GOT ONE OF THE COOLEST PRESENTS AND IT SLIPPED YOUR MIND!?!” Sirius asked in outrage, while James just shrugged.

"Alright, we should go now, that way we can catch them coming back from dinner!" said James.

"Do you guys actually know where the Slytherin common room is?" asked Lily.

"Umm…" was their response, "Do you?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do, Sev told me where it was so I could meet him there sometime."

"Well, then you should come with us, the cloak should cover the three of us…" said James and Lily nodded.

And with that the three of them got up and went quickly to the Gryffindor common room, and then James ran up to the dorm to grab it. When he came down, he was holding a silvery cloak.

"We'll put it on in the hall…" said James, the other two nodded and they headed out into the hallway, looked to make sure no one was coming, then put on the cloak and made their way down stairs and towards the dungeons.

"We need to turn right up here…" whispered Lily.

After about 20 minutes they had arrived at the portrait leading to the Slytherins common room, and they stood there for about another five, then a group of Slytherins arrived.

"Pureblood," said one of them, and the portrait swung open.

"Wow, aren't they creative,” snorted Sirius, “I could have guessed that…”

"Very," James said, chuckling, then they quickly turned around and after they were up a few floors they took off the cloak and set out in a sprit towards Gryffindor tower to make a plan.

At 1 o'clock the girls got out of bed and got changed, into all black, and they made their way down to the common room where the boys were waiting, also in all black.

"So I brought the cloak, you girls can use it, I'm sure can fit four, if not five of you under it," James said, handing Lily the cloak.

All five of the girls were able to fit under the cloak, and just barely, you could see Gemma and Adrian's feet if you looked hard enough, because they were the tallest.

"If a teacher comes we are going to need to duck," said Adaline, "That way they won't see your guys' feet."

"Okay," They all agreed.

"Ready?" asked Sirius, who was carrying two backpacks, as were the other guys.

"Let's go!" said Alice, and with that, the boys lead their way down to the dungeons where they knew that the Slytherin common room was.

"Pureblood," James whispered when they got there, and when the portrait swung open, they were relieved to see that it was indeed empty.

The Slytherin common was very similar to the Gryffindor common room, only the colors were green and silver, and it was definitely a little more dreary, because there were not nearly as many windows.

The nine of them picked separate corners and sides, and got to work, it practically took them an hour to cover the entire common room with toilet paper.

"We should get out of here before anyone wakes up..." said Lily smartly.

They all nodded and the girls all squeezed back under the cloak, and they started walking. They made about half way to their common room before they ran into anyone, though sadly, when they ran into someone, there was no where for the boys to hide, and the girls quickly ducked, so that Professor McGongall couldn't see their feet.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin and Mr. Pettigrew, what on Earth are you doing out of bed at this hour?" she said, sternly.

"We were getting a midnight snack from the kitchens," Sirius said, with out even a second thought.

"Well, that is a detention for being out after hours, you will meet me in the Great Hall at 3 o'clock tomorrow for your detention. Also, 20 points will be taken from Gryffindor.”

"Yes Professor," the boys grumbled.

"Now off to bed!" she said, and watched as they made their way back to the common room, “And don’t get into anymore trouble! It’s the last week of school and you cannot afford to loose house points!”

With that the slowly made their way back towards the common room, all four of them thinking the same thing, they needed something that would tell them when a Professor was coming, that would make pulling pranks so much easier.

The girls were all grateful that they were hidden, though Alice was grumbling about how Isabel was going to kill her for not controlling her son…


	21. Chapter 21

The next morning the first year Gryffindors woke up early so that they could see the angry looks on the Slytherin's faces as they walked into the Great Hall. And they were not disappointed. The Slytherins all stalked in wearing scowls on their faces, and shooting death glares at the Gryffindor table. Snape's glared lingered a bit longer on the four Gryffindor first year boys, but his gazed softened slightly when he saw Lily and Adaline. He continued glaring when Candice, Frank and Tyler all went over and sat by them, chuckling to themselves.

"Hey Candice!" Lily said, "Do you know when they will hand out the grades?"

"Um, I think they do that the day before we got out of school…yeah, it's the morning before the feast. Well except for the 5th and 7th years theirs take longer to grade because those are the big tests. They get theirs over the summer," she said.

"Okay thanks!" said Lily, though slightly disappointed that she had to wait that long to figure out what she got.

"No problamo!" said Candice grinning, while Tyler mutter under his breath something that sounded like “she really needs to stop saying that…”

"What's got the Slytherins' knickers in a twist?" asked Tyler.

"Well," said Sirius, grinning, "We sort of tepeed their common room."

"That's brilliant!" said Frank, giving Sirius and James high fives because they were the closest to him at the time.

"Why thank you," said Sirius, and then he boastfully added, "It was all my idea."

"Amazing," said Candice, admiration shinning in her violet eyes, "I have always wanted to do something like that to them, they totally have it coming."

"You can always help us with the end of the year prank…" said James, grinning.

"End of the year prank?" Alice said in a loud whisper, "I promised your mum that I would not let you get into any trouble, you already have one detention, and you don't need another! I was supposed to keep you on a leash!"

This made everyone laugh.

"Don't worry Alice, we won't get caught!" he said grinning.

"We better not," she grumbled, knowing that there was no use in arguing over, because he would just do it anyways.

"So, who wants to know what we're doing?" he said, grinning.

"What?" Sirius said loudly, practically jumping up and down in his seat.

"Well, I was thinking something along the lines of…" and with that he told them the plan, and when he was done everyone was nodding their food was left forgotten and cold on their plates.

"I love it," said Candice, and they went on grinning.

Lily woke up early on the morning of May 31st, both excited and nauseous. She slowly crept out of bed and grabbed some clothes from her trunk, then went to shower. When she came out Adaline was just waking up, so she waited while Adaline got ready quickly, and then they made their way to the Great Hall together, making a light conversation.

When they arrived they found Frank sitting there reading a book so they walked over and sat across from him.

"Hey Frank!" Lily said brightly.

"Hey Lily, Adaline," he said, putting his book down so that he could talk with them.

"How are you?" asked Adaline.

"Alright, couldn't fall back to sleep. What about you two?"

"Nervous…" said Lily.

"Well Miss Evans, I can assure you that if you are worrying about your exams you have nothing to worry about," said Professor McGonagall from behind them, giving Lily a rare smile, "Congratulations, to all three of you."

Professor McGonagall gave them their grades, which Frank opened quickly and sighed with relief, "Two Es and the rest Os."

"Great job!" Adaline said, tearing hers open, "I got all Os except for an A in History of Magic. How'd you do Lils?"

Lily was staring at her letter in shock, "I got all Os!"

"Really Lils?" asked Adaline, jumping up and giving her friend a hug, "That's amazing; I bet you're top of the class too! I'm 20th."

Lily just nodded numbly, she could not wait to tell her father when she got home he would be so proud. She was trying to wrap her head around the fact that she, a muggle born witch was at the top of the class, not some pureblood. She allowed herself to grin in victory. All of her hard work had paid off.

"You guys!" Adrian said running towards them her grades in her hand; Gemma and Alice following close behind, "I got four Os, two Es and an A."

"Congrats!" said Adaline; "I got all Os except for one A and Lils over here got all Os!"

"Great job!" she said.

"Yeah, I got four Os and three Es," said Alice, Gemma nodding.

"Same."

"Good job!"

"Ha-ha Ali, Gem, I beat you!" James said, grinning, "I only got two Es, and the rest Os!"

"Same," said Sirius nodding.

"I got one O, five Es and one A," said Peter, grimly, knowing that he did the worst out of his friends.

"That's still really good Pete," said Lily, making him feel slightly better.

"I got All Os except for one E…" said Remus, slightly bummed because he came so close to having all Os, but he was still really proud of himself.

"Great job!" Adrian said.

They all ate a small breakfast, knowing that they were going to have a lot to eat that night at the feast.

Later that day, slightly before the feast, the 12 young Gryffindors made their way through the corridors, on their way to the kitchens. When they got there, Lily tickled the pear, and they moved inside.

"Hello!" Star said, looking happy to see them, "How can Star help?"

"Hi Star!" Lily said excitedly, "Can we have a chocolate cake? Please? Only a small one though, we don't want to get to full!"

"Of course!" Star said, and she ran off, while James, Sirius and Candice quickly poured potions in the drinks and in the food that Star had been watching.

They had just finished up when Star came back, "May Star ask why Miss wants a cake?"

"Well, I got all Os, and we figured a celebration was necessary," said Lily grinning brightly as she dug into her cake happily.

"Very good Miss!" said Star, clearly impressed.

"Thanks," Lily said, blushing.

After they ate the cake they made their way swiftly to the Great Hall where everyone was sitting, the 7th years looking sad, this was their last night in the castle, and they had graduated that morning, and were having a ball after the fest.

When they arrived the drinks were just coming out, and as to not look suspicious they grabbed goblets of pumpkin juice. And took swift sips, and they could see everyone else in the Hall doing the same thing.

The results were quick, soon everyone was supporting really long beards, some kids were laughing, but others look furious. Luckily Dumbledore looked amused.

"Well, I would just like to say congratulations, you have completed another year here. I hope you all have a safe holiday, and I shall see you back next year. Seventh years, congratulations on making it this far, I know you will all do great things with your life. Now eat up, and enjoy your beards!" he said, causing laughter to erupt.

When everyone looked down the food was on the table, and most people quickly dug in ignoring their beards and not noticing them getting smaller and smaller with each bite, until eventually they were completely gone.

"That was great!" said Candice, happily.

"Yeah it was!" said Peter.

They ate the delicious feast laughing and joking, until it was time for the seventh years to have their ball, and everyone else to leave.

“Hey guys, what do you think our seventh year is going to be like?” Adaline asked.

“Well, we are all going to be best friends, obviously,” Alice said, “And as long as we are all still friends, nothing else will matter.”

Everyone nodded and then they quietly made their way to their dorm rooms, tired out, and full, everyone having pleasant dreams.

"Guys we're almost home!" said Alice, nearly bouncing off of the walls.

"Great…" said Adrian her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Right..." said Sirius looking just as thrilled.

"You guys need to write!" said Gemma.

"I will if you write first, no owl remember..." said Lily, sadly.

"Oh you know I will!" said Alice, "I wont leave any of you alone!"

"What have we gotten ourselves into?" asked Remus, shaking his head, laughing.

"I don't know!" said Peter, laughing, glancing at Alice cautiously, only to find her rolling on the ground laughing.

"What is you problem today?" asked James, laughing.

"I get to see Neville and Susanna again!"

"Ah..." he said understanding.

"Yeah!"

The ride continued with Alice bouncing off of the walls, and everyone else laughing at their friends craziness. When the train stopped they all said their goodbyes and made their way towards their families, either filled with happiness or dread...they were all already looking forward to next year though.

 

 


	22. Chapter 22

Adrian, Adaline, and Sirius said goodbye on the train, not wishing to get into anymore trouble with their parents than they already were, threatening their friends to write, dreading this summer. Then they slowly made their way off the train, and walked slowly towards their families. When Jamie, Henry and Regulus caught sight of them they came running towards them, just avoiding their parents grasps.

Jamie slipped and fell flat onto her face, only to get back up, laughing, and continue to run towards them. Regulus being the fastest reached them first.

"How was your term?" he asked excitedly, wanting to know all about Hogwarts, this caused the three of them to smile.

"It was good," said Sirius, smirking, "We pranked the Slytherins a few times."

"Really?" he asked in awe, "Oh yeah, I remember, Mum is not happy with you…turning Cissy's hair purple?"

"Yep!" said Adrian, happily.

"Cool!" said Henry laughing as they continued their walk to their parents, full of dread.

"Adrie! Adie!" Jamie yelled, and she clung onto her sisters' legs, until Adaline picked her up.

"Jamie!" they both said laughing.

Once they reached their families they were embraced in fake, stiff hugs, everyone acting as though they were happy to see them, except Narcissa, she was still glaring. And Sirius knew after all the fake smiles and hugs that this was going to be a very long summer that he was not looking forward to.

                                                      ***

Peter left next not sure who to expect when he got on the Platform, what if his mum had left again? But those worries were instantly vaporized when he saw her standing on the Platform, waving at him, with a warm smile placed on her face.

"Peter!" she cried, pulling him into a giant hug, causing him to blush of embarrassment.

"Hi Mum," he said, happy to see her, "Where's dad?"

"He went to go and pick up your Grandmother," she said, carefully, neither of them were very fond of the lady, she believed in all the pure blood mania, "But, how was your term?"

He smiled at her quick change of the topic, clearly not wanting to talk about it anymore, but he had to ask, "How long is she staying? It was good, a lot of work though…"

"All summer…" she said, frowning, "And I'm glad it was fun…I got a letter from your school, you did well on your exams, your father and I are very proud!"

"Thanks Mum…" he said, but the fact that his Grandmother was coming to stay, he knew that his activities would be very limited this summer.

                                                      ***

Lily left next, running through the barrier quickly, excited to see her father and sister, and not wanting to see all of the tearful mothers embracing their kids, knowing that hers would not be there.

"Daddy!" she shouted, and she ran and threw her arms around her father.

"Tuney!" she said, throwing her arms around her sister as well, but when her sister only returned it stiffly she knew her sister was back to hating her.

"Hey Lils," her father said, smiling, "How was your term?"

"It was great; I got all Os on my exams! The best in the class!" she said positively beaming.

"Are Os the highest you can get?"

"Yeah," Lily said.

"That's great Lils! I'm so proud of you, let's go out for ice cream," he proposed and Lily nodded excitedly, while Petunia stood there jealously.  


                                                      ***

James, Alice and Gemma all made their way off of the train, grinning, knowing that their families would be standing near each other. Once Jake caught sight of them he ran towards them, leaving his conversation with Marie, and gave his sister a huge hug.

"How was your term? What pranks did you pull?" he asked, "What were exams like? How were your classes? Teachers?"

"Whoa there Jake, calm down," said Gemma chuckling, "Term was fine, we changed the Slytherins' hair funky colors and tepeed their common room, exams are evil, and classes are hard, but most of the teachers are nice."

"What-" Jake started to ask but his mother cut him off.

"Let your sister breathe Jake, you can ask them questions later."

"Fine…" he grumbled not happy, he had to wait four years before he would get the chance to go.

"What are you three going to want for dinner?" asked Isabel Potter.

"Pizza!" James and Gemma shouted, loving the simple food that was rarely served at Hogwarts unless you went down to the kitchens.

"Ice cream!" Alice yelled at the exact same time.

"NO!" James shouted, getting many nasty glares, "Alice you don't need any more sugar!"

"Yes!" Alice countered.

"Nope."

"Yeah."

"Nope."

"Yes!"

"NO!"

"YES!"

"NO"

"NO!" Gemma added.

"YES!"

"We can have ice cream for dessert," said Melissa Prewett.

"Fine…" Alice said grudgingly, knowing not to argue with her mother, but that didn't stop her from glaring at James.

"We'll meet you at your house Isabel," said Larraine Ryan.

"Alright, be over at six for dinner," she replied.

Larraine and Melissa nodded, and the three families walked out to their Ministry cars.

                                                      ***

Lily and her family made their way towards her favorite ice cream parlor for a treat, and as Lily's reward.

"So Lils, what are you going to get?" her father asked.

Lily sat their thoughtful for a moment, and then she said, "I think that I'll have cookie dough in a waffle cone."

"Pet?"

"I'll have a small strawberry ice cream in a cup," she said, not looking very happy about her sister being back.

With that Mr. Evans went to go and get the ice cream while Lily and Petunia went and found a table, where they sat in an awkward silence.

"Here you go," he said, handing each of the girls their ice cream, which Lily ate with vigor and which Petunia ate slowly, pecking at it with her spoon (Lily was reminded of a bird, but she decided to keep her mouth shut).

Their father eating a sundae, the very sundae that used to be their mother's favorite (turtle to be exact).

"So Lily, how are all of your friends?" Mr. Evans asked, not able to take the silence any longer.

"They're all pretty good, though Sirius, Adaline and Adrian were not very excited to be going home," she said, without even thinking about what she was saying.

"Why?" her father asked, curiously.

"Who cares?" Petunia said under her breath so only Lily could hear her.

"They don't get along very well with a majority of their family, they are all different from them, but in a good way," Lily said, not wanting to flat out say that they hated their families.

"Oh…" was all the response she got, her father not knowing what to say.

"Yeah," Lily said, and they continued to eat their ice cream in an awkward silence, Petunia glaring at Lily from across the table.

                                                      ***

Alice sat at the oak dining room table, eating her chocolate ice cream, that was covered with a layer chocolate fudge, and she was enjoying every minute of it. James and Gemma sat on either side of her throwing terrified looks at Alice, knowing just what sugar did to her. Susanna and Neville across the table shaking their heads, slowly eating their ice creaming, while Marie sat holding her stomach complaining about eating her ice cream too fast.

"I am so glad that our parents decided they wanted to spend the night with us, instead of having us spending the night with each other..." Gemma said, thankfully.

"I know," James said, nodding, and eyeing Alice, as she finished her ice cream.

"Mmmm," she said, smiling happily, "That was amazing!"

After she finished cleaning her bowl the three of them made their way outside by the fire, Marie was looking ecstatic about something her mother had just said, having gotten up and left a few minutes before the others.

"GUESS WHAT?" she asked unable to contain herself.

"WHAT?" Alice asked, just as excited due to the sugar.

"We're going to Egypt over the summer!" Maggie squealed.

"Really?" Alice said in shock.

"Yes," said Melissa Prewett, giving Marie a look for spoiling the secret, "Your father won a trip through a raffle. Neville and Susanna will be coming with us, and since neither of them get off school for another week we will leave on Wednesday. We will get back two weeks before you go back to school."

Alice gave a shriek of excitement and gave her father a big hug; the she started dancing around the fire. All of the adults started laughing as Marie got up and danced with her, and Susanna shortly after. Isabel Potter took a picture of the dancing girls, never wanting them to forget the memory.

James and Gemma looked on with jealousy, but both were really happy for their friends.

"WE'RE GOING TO EGYPT!" they sang as they twirled around in circles.

Their dancing continued for about an hour, and then it was time for them to leave. Alice sent a quick message to Lily, Remus, and Peter before she fell asleep, her sugar high finally dying down.

Lily was awoken early the next morning to a persistent tapping on her window. Rolling over she glanced at her window and saw it was Alice's family owl. Grudgingly she got out of bed and let the annoying bird in, taking the letter from the bird's leg. She opened her letter and saw Alice's familiar hand writing.

_LILS!_

_GUESS WHAT? (Lily mentally cringed upon imagining Alice's cheerful voice; it was way too early for that…) I'M GOING TO EGYPT THIS SUMMER! I'm leaving next week on Monday! Marie, Neville and Susana are all coming too! My dad won a trip through the Ministry! Sadly, this means I won't be back until two weeks before term…We will need to hang out then! But don't worry, I will try and continue to write to you!_

_Alice_

Lily grinned, planning on writing Alice a reply at a more suitable time, like ten. She stood up and walked over to her bed, and was almost asleep when she heard more annoying tapping. Groaning she stood up and let the second bird in, and took the letter from the birds leg, looking curiously at the small leather pouch that was also attached.

_Lily!_

_So tomorrow (Thursday) my mom is taking my sister, her friends, and I too the Muggle spa, Gem is coming with and I was hoping that you could too! I was going to try and floo over to Adaline and Adrian's early tomorrow morning to see if they could sneak away...in fact by the time you read this I probably already have their answers. Anyways, I was wondering if you could come, I had my dad hook your house up to the floo network (I even sent you some floo powered in the pouch!) So if you can come just owl me, and then floo over at 2. If you can come you are welcome (you better!) to sleep over! I hope that I will see you later!_

_Alice_

_P.S. Floo to the Prewett Manor!_

Lily grinned and ran quickly down stairs to find her dad before he left for work. She caught him just in time.

"Daddy?" she asked, "Can I sleep over at Alice's tonight?"

"What time?" he asked.

"I will leave at 2 today and I don't know what time I'll be back tomorrow."

"I can't give you a ride."

"I don't need one. Please Daddy, she's going to be gone for most of the summer, and we'd go to the spa!"

"Fine. I will see you tomorrow than. Behave and I love you," he said, "Are you going to need money?"

He took Lily's sheepish smile as a yes, and pulled out some money from his wallet before kissing her forehead and heading off to work.

Lily jumped with glee, then walked back up stairs and fell asleep until ten. When she woke up she sent Alice a quick reply before going to get ready.

                                                      ***

Alice flooed over to the Prince household (Adaline's room to be exact) at 6:20 in the morning, hoping to find her in her room. She was happy to find that Adaline was in her room, still asleep. Alice crept over quietly to where Adaline's bed was located before she genteelly shook her awake.

"Alice?" Adaline said, sleepily.

"Yeah," Alice said, in a somewhat rushed tone, "Let's go get Adrian."

"Alice, you can't be here!" Adaline said, once she consciously realized that Alice was there, "My mum will be here at 6:30 sharp!"

"Fine!" Alice said, handing Adaline a letter before disappearing into the flames, and spinning out of sight.

Adaline was about to open the letter when her mother came knocking on her door. She quickly hid the letter under her pillow.

"Adaline Hope get up right now!" her mother screeched before moving towards Adrian's room, "Adrianna Grace get up too!"

She sat up rubbing the last remains of sleep from her eyes.

Her mother walked into the door as if it were her own room, "You have dance lessons today from 8-11, then we will go out and eat lunch before your singing lessons from 12-2. Breakfast this morning is a family affair; I want you downstairs in the dining hall at 7 in your ballet outfits. If you are late you will be grounded."

Adaline stifled a groan as her mother walked into Adrian's room to relay the same message. Once she knew that the coast was clear she walked into Adrian's room and pulled out the note. Together they read:

_Adaline and Adrian!_

_I hope that your summer hasn't been too dreadful! Mine has been great! Because I'M GOING TO EGYPT! I'm leaving on Monday and won't get back until two weeks before term. I figured you couldn't talk so I wrote it out. I am going to the Muggle spa later today with my family and some of our friends; I really would love if you guys could come. I can understand if you can't. If you can floo over to my house somewhere between 1 and 2, and if you aren't there by 2 I will take it as you can't come. I hope I'll be able to see you later!_

_Alice_

"There's no way is there?" Adrian said desperately.

"No..." Adaline said sadly, before turning and starting to get ready.

Before she made her way downstairs she tore up the note and burned it, not wanting her mother to find it. Then she made her way sluggishly towards the dining hall, already dreading the day.

 


	23. Chapter 23

Lily packed up all of her things that she was going to take to Alice's house. She was really excited to see her friends, not knowing how often she would actually get to see them over the summer. She was really hoping it would be quite often, she could already tell that Petunia was going back to her cold self, ignoring her. Her sister had hardly said a word to her since she had been home, and Lily hated it. She couldn’t understand how they could go from being best friends to hating each other in the blink of an eye. It just shouldn’t be possible.

At one o'clock Lily took the small bag of floo powder and walked over to her fireplace, where she had started a fire earlier. She took the green dust and threw it into the before stepping in as the flames licked her, but she couldn't feel the burning (thankfully).

"Prewett Manor!" she shouted, and her sister who just walked into the room looked about ready to scream seeing her sister standing in green flames.

She started spinning, and she pulled her arms to her chest, not wanting them to hit the sides of the fireplaces. After a short while she came to a stop, and practically fell out onto the Prewett's living room floor, thankfully she steadied herself just in time.

"Lily!" Alice screamed, excitedly rushing towards her dizzy friend.

"Alice!" she said, laughing at her crazy friend.

"You're the only one here so far, Adaline and Adrian can't come, they were unable to sneak out, but Gemma will be here soon."

"Awesome!" Lily, said excited, "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing great, I'm really excited!"

"I would be to if I was going to Egypt!"

"I still can't believe it…"

"Understood, two years ago I went to Hawaii; it didn't sink in until I was on the plane…"

Just then the flames turned green and Gemma walked out of the flames casually.

"Hey Alice, hey Lily!" she said happily.

Melissa Prewett walked into the room at that moment, "Hello girls."

"Hello Mrs. Prewett," Lily said politely.

"Hello, you must be Lily."

"Yes, I am."

"Aunt Mel!" Gemma yelled, even though she wasn't her actual aunt.

"Hello Gemma dear…"

"Are we leaving soon?" Marie asked, walking into the room with her friends Ashley and Mary following her.

"Yes, right now as a matter of fact. You girls ready to go?"

"Yes Mum!" Alice said, "Just leave your stuff here, the House Elves will take it up to my room."

Lily nodded and the three of them followed Marie and her friends and Mrs. Prewett out of the house and into the car before they were off to the spa. Lily holding on to the handle of the door discretely because Mrs. Prewett was not used to driving often, and though Lily would never say it out loud, she couldn’t help but think that it was probably for the best.

                                             ***

After a long day of activities all Adaline wanted to do was fall asleep on her bed, but she knew that was not going to happen.

"I call the shower first!" Adrian yelled, walking into the bathroom.

Adaline just groaned, and then she made her way to her closet where she opened the white bag that held the dress she was expected to wear to the party tonight. It was the annual 'Welcome Home' party that they were forced to attend every year. Her dress this year was red, her little way to say Gryffindor pride, it had spaghetti straps on it, but other than that it was just plain, and it flowed out slightly from her waist.

Once her sister was done in the shower Adaline ran into the bathroom and started hers. Adrian then went to her closet and took out her blue dress that was very similar to her sisters.

Soon both girls were standing in front of the mirror doing their hair.

"I really don't want to go to this thing…" Adrian said.

"Neither do I, you don't suppose we could pretend to be sick do you?"

"No. Besides, even if we could, Sirius and Peter would have our heads for ditching them…"

"I suppose you're right…" Adaline said, sighing in defeat.

"GIRLS!" came their mother's shrill voice, "HURRY UP!"

"Coming Mother!" they yelled, and hurried down the stairs and into the living room.

"Are you girls ready?" she asked, staring at them.

"Yes Mother," Adaline said, bowing her head politely, not wanting to be stuck in her room all summer (well, by force, she’d probably be there anyways).

"Very well. The party is here tonight and the guest will be arriving any moment now."

"Great…" Adrian said under her breath so only Adaline could hear.

"What was that?" the mother asked, glaring at Adrian.

"Nothing mother."

Just then the doorbell rang, and the girls' night of hell began.

                                             ***

Remus stood in the kitchen helping his mother prepare dinner, mac-n-cheese. He was telling her stories about his school year and about his friends, while she was smiling and laughing.

"Oh, Remus, I am so glad you like it at Hogwarts," she said, smiling.

"Mum, I don't like it at Hogwarts!" he said, his blue eyes smiling.

"You don't?" she said, pretending to frown to amuse him.

"Nope," he said, shaking his head childishly, "I love it!"

She chuckled at her son, glad to finally see him this happy, almost carefree. She hadn't seen him like that in a long time, and she knew, she would do almost anything Albus Dumbledore asked of her for making this possible. She would forever be indebted to him because he gave her son his spirit back.

                                             ***

James was sitting in his living room playing chess with his father. They were talking about all of the fun things that James had done over the year, like his prank on the Slytherins. His dad likewise was telling him stories of all of the pranks that he had pulled at school, mainly on the Slytherins.

"Victor!" Isabel said as she walked into the room, "You don't need to give him any ideas!"

"Sorry love," he said, and he gave James a look that clearly said they would continue this conversation later.

Isabel just rolled her eyes at her husband's antics, but she could not help but smile all the same. It was nice to see them talking so happy, and so free; she never wanted anything to change. Even if her husband was giving her son awful ideas, she knew that they were too similar for this not to happen.

                                                      ***

Later that night the girls were all sitting around Alice's Muggle television, watching movies and laughing while examining their nails. Lily had gone with a light purple color, Alice had done a bright orange and Gemma had done an electric green. The other two joking with Lily that she was boring to which she simply rolled her eyes and laughed.

"We are all going to have to go shopping for school supplies together when I get back!" Alice said, "Hopefully Adaline and Adrian will be able to join us."

"Hopefully…"

"I feel so bad for them, stuck with the stuck-up purebloods all summer. I mean I think I would be in tears if I had to spend that much time with that horrid Lucius Malfoy and his awful hair…no one needs to use that much gel…" Gemma said.

"At least they have Peter and Sirius…" Lily said, and giggling she added, “I’m pretty sure that it’s bullet proof!”

Both Alice and Gemma gave her a funny look, so Lily explained, “It’s a muggle term…”

They both laughed, nodding.

“Either way, I’m sure he spends longer in front of the mirror than half of the girls at Hogwarts!” Alice said, and they all giggled and nodded in agreement.

***

Soon all of the guests had arrived, including Sirius and Peter, and the four of them were trying to find a way to sneak up to their bedrooms. So far, they were failing, always being talked to by the bratty stuck-ups who were forced to come and say hello or they were getting glared at from one of their parents just as they reached the door.

"This party is going to last forever…" Adrian groaned.

"Yes it is…" Sirius said as they sat down on the sofa, knowing that they couldn't sneak out.

"How long until we get to go back to school again?" Adaline asked, somewhat hopeful.

"Too long…" Sirius said.

Peter decided to stay quiet during this conversation, knowing that he didn't have it nearly as bad as his friends did, especially with his mom back at home. He was very thankful for this, but he had a feeling that it wouldn't last. He decided that he was just going to enjoy it while it was here and make the best of it when it wasn't. He could see his dad standing introducing his Grandmother to the people she didn’t already know, and the dark figure of Tom Riddle standing the corner observing all of the interactions. Peter quickly looked away when Tom’s gaze turned towards him but he couldn’t ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach. There was something not right about him (more so than everyone else in the room) and Peter was positive he didn’t want to know what it was.

 


	24. Chapter 24

Lily got home at about one thirty in the afternoon the next day, after saying goodbye to Alice and Gemma, each of the girls promising to write and in Gemma and Lily's cases to see each other multiple times over the summer. She found that her sister was out at a friend's house; shocking she left Lily a note on the counter telling her where she was and when she'd be home. Sighing and bored Lily decided to go to the park, and hopefully she would get to see Severus there considering she had not seen him since school let out. Even though it had only been a matter of days she did miss her friend. So after writing a quick note to her sister, or her father, depending on who made it home first, she made her way towards the little rundown park that was located a few blocks away, conveniently directly in the middle of her and Sev's houses.

As she grew closer to the park she saw a thin figure hunched over and swinging on the left swing. Smiling she walked a little quicker, excited to see her friend.

"Sev!" she shouted, laughing, jumping onto the swing next to him that was her swing.

The right swing had been her swing for as long as she could remember. When she was younger and her mother used to take her to the park with Tuney, and the left swing was Tuney's and the right swing was hers. That was just how it worked. Sadly, once she got her letter Petunia stopped going to the park with her, and it slowly started to become Sev's swing (though that was more his doing…secretly she still thought of it as Petunia’s swing).

"Hey Lils!" his pale face breaking into a huge grin (one she wasn’t sure she’d seen when they were at school).

"How is your summer going?" Lily asked happy to see her friend looking so free and happy.

"Alright," he said, "My mom keep dragging me to those dreadful parties. Thankfully Adaline is there. Otherwise I would be completely bored."

They both knew he was lying and that he enjoyed the company, even though Lily didn’t, but he decided not to get into an argument about his friends so he left it at that, which Lily was grateful for.

"How are Adaline and Adrian?" she asked, curious, "And what about Pete and Sirius? Have you seen them too?"

"The twins are good, busy. Their mother is forcing them to take dance lessons as well as piano and voice lessons. Neither is terribly thrilled about it, but they'll live. Black and Pettigrew are still up to trouble. Luckily they haven't created me the victim yet, mainly just Lucius."

Lily could not help but to giggle at how very typical of Sirius and Peter that was, but she was thankful that they had not yet turned their forces onto Sev. He didn't deserve it. Lucius ‘my hair is fabulous’ Malfoy on the other hand definitely deserved it.

The two of them spent to rest of the afternoon at the park, catching and discussing classes. Both were extremely excited to go back to school, even though they had only been back a week.

Lily wandered home at about six thirty, expecting to find her father at home and dinner almost done. Her father was always home at six fifteen exactly, and he was rarely late. So you can imagine her surprise when she walked into the house to find that only her sister was home.

"Hey Petunia," Lily said, "Where's dad?"

"I'm not sure, probably just got caught up at work…" said Petunia, but both knew that was unlikely because he always called, even when he was going to be just five minutes late.

"Probably," Lily said, talking a seat at the counter, feeling nervous.

The girls sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes until the obnoxious ringing of the phone filled the air.

"Hello?" Petunia answered, her voice shaking slightly and Lily got a sense of deja vu.

                                             ***

James was lying on his bed bored. He had not seen anyone yet this summer, and he didn't like it. Alice was too busy packing for her trip and Gemma just hadn't been over yet. When he tried Peter his father would not let him go because they had another outing that night, and when he tried Remus he was helping his sick mother. He knew that Sirius, Adrian and Adaline would not be allowed, and he really hoped that Lily got his owl soon; otherwise he might just die of boredom.

"James dear?" his mother asked from outside the door.

"Yeah mum?" He called .

"You need to clean your room, your cousins are coming over."

"Gemma and Alice?" he asked hopefully, while Alice was not blood related to him like Gemma was they were practically cousins.

"Yes dear."

"Can't one of the house elves clean it for me?" he asked in a whiny voice.

"James Potter! You are not incapable of cleaning your room, and I will not allow you to become as spoiled to think that you do not need to clean your own room! Besides you have been complaining you have nothing to do."

James put his head in his hands and groaned, thankful that he had at least one thing to look forward to.

                                             ***

Gemma was sitting outside in the shade looking at the latest Quidditch magazine when Jake come up to her.

"Hey Gem?" he asked.

"Yeah?" she replied, not looking up from her magazine.

"Can we play Quidditch?"

"Jake, you can't play Quidditch with two people."

"Then can we throw the quaffle around? Please?"

"Fine," Gemma said, though she was happy to have something fun to do.

The two of them ran inside to get their brooms, before running of into the field, where any Muggles that happened to be passing by would not see them.

They stayed out and played until their mom called them in to get ready to go over to the Potters' for dinner. Both enjoying each other’s company and Gemma talking about her year, while her brother hung onto every word.

                                                      ***

Soon enough James was sitting in his dining room laughing and talking with everyone, finally enjoying his summer.

"So James, you doing anything interesting this summer?" asked Gemma, hoping not so that she had company, knowing she would be able to see him a whole lot more than she would be able to see Lily.

"Sadly, no," James said, shooting a look at his parents because normally they take at least one trip over the summer, but they were needed in the Auror department.

James' parents shot him a look clearly stating ‘don’t even start’, and Gemma continued, "Good. That means that I will have someone to hang out with since Alice is ditching me!"

"Sorry…" Alice said, and then she thought about and added, "Actually no, not really."

This caused Gemma to stick her tongue out at her friend, and the adults to laugh, though Mrs. Ryan was shaking her head slightly at her daughter's immaturity.

This continued well into the night, the friends all enjoying their time together before the Prewetts left for Egypt. Everyone wishing them a fun and safe trip.

                                             ***

Peter was sitting in his room with Sirius, Adrian and Adaline plotting out what pranks they could pull off next year, as well as at the next dinner party.

"We haven't pranked Snape in a while," Sirius pointed out to Adrian.

"No you haven't," said Adaline, "And it is going to stay that way!"

"But Ad..." Adrian said shooting her sister her best puppy dog look, though it had no effect on her sister and it looked more like a puppy in pain to her.

"What if it virtually harmless? Like putting red streaks in his hair?"

"I'd still rather you didn't, but if you must do something it better not be anything terrible or I will get you back..." she threatened, and everyone froze for a second knowing that she was serious.

Then, Sirius, Peter and Adrian all shared a smirk, knowing full well that they were going to do something; they just needed to figure out what. Luckily they had a week before they had to see him, so they had a full week to perfect it. They just grinned evilly and Adaline shook her head, hoping whatever they did to her closest cousin wasn't too terrible, though she had a feeling Severus would see it is terrible no matter what it was...And oh how right was she.

           

 

 


	25. Chapter 25

Lily sat out on the dock at her Grandma's house; she had a small pond in her back yard, with a small dock, and an old wooden rowboat. She was sitting and reading a book, but she was finding it hard to concentrate. Her father had become distant, always coming home late, very rarely calling to tell them anymore, it was now something that was expected, and now he had this random business trip. Lily knew that Petunia didn't believe everything her father was saying about working towards a promotion, and Lily was beginning to think that maybe Petunia was right. He had never had to work this much in the past. But Lily couldn't figure out why he would lie to them.

So now, instead of sitting comfortably at home, she was spending an extra week in Surrey, probably the most boring county in all of England. Everyone was extremely nosey, much like her sister, who loved spending time here. Sure, she loved her Grandma, and enjoyed visiting her; she just enjoyed it much more when it was the regular week in Surrey, not two. Lily hated feeling like the prying neighbors were always watching her; all of which were too nosy for their own good. Gossip spread like wildfire here, and Lily didn't like it, especially when she had such a big secret to keep. She couldn’t even imagine what would happen if someone would per chance find out. Lily knew it wasn’t likely, but she couldn’t help but shiver at the horrid thought.

Sighing, she closed her book having finished it. It had been a good book, but it had also been the last she brought with her. She stood up, cringing as she felt her shoulders burning from all the hours in the sun. She walked slowly into the house, and called out to her Grandmother.

"I'm going out to the bookstore, and maybe to get some ice cream!" she said.

"Already finished all of your books Lily dear?" her Grandmother asked, smiling.

"Sadly," Lily said, chuckling slightly.

"Alright, be careful, and be back by dinner!" her Grandmother said, and Lily nodded, before going upstairs to grab some money.

She walked a couple of blocks before she reached the small bookstore that she absolutely adored. Her father used to take her all of the time when she was younger, because he too loved reading, and soon she was going at least once every time they visited their Grandma. She opened the door, smiling as the smell of the new and old books embraced her, and she moved happily through the shelves, looking for a book or two to buy.

"Lily?" she heard from behind her, and she grinned, hardly believing her luck.

"Remus!" she said, running and throwing her arms around him.

Remus chuckled and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"My father is on a business trip for a week so my sister and I our staying at our Grandmothers' house for the week, and were here last week. What are you doing around here?"

"My mother comes to Surrey about once a week to check in on one of her patients, and I normally come with her because I love this book store."

“If I had known that these past weeks would have gone by so much faster!” Lily said with a groan.

Then Lily smiled, happy that Remus was here. She hadn't seen any of her friends in the longest time. Her and Gemma had promised to see each other all summer and while she had seen her and James a few times, often times neither her father nor Petunia were home and she didn’t want to leave without asking. So seeing Remus was like a God send. They continued to catch up as they searched the bookshelves for anything to read. Just enjoying each other company. After about an hour they were ready to leave, both with a few books in their hands. After the bookstore they went out to the little ice parlor nearby the little shop. They entered the parlor and ordered their ice cream, strawberry for Lily and chocolate for Remus, and they went and sat outside.

"Are you excited for school to start?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, mum told me that we should be getting our supply lists soon!"

"We probably will, school starts in two weeks! I can't wait to get back to Hogwarts!"

"Me neither, we should owl Sirius and see when he and the girls will be in Diagon Alley, that way we can see them briefly. At least before school starts."

"That's a great idea!"

"I always have great ideas Lily!” Remus laughed before adding excitedly, “I'll owl him tonight when I get home!"

"Sounds great! Owl me the date!" Lily said, excited by the thought that she might get to see her friends.

"I will! I'll tell everyone else the date as well!" Remus said, "Anyway, I should probably go, my mum is going to be wondering where I am. Bye! I'll see you when we meet up at Diagon Alley!"

"Bye!" Lily said.

                                             ***

Alice raced through Diagon Alley to run and stand in front of Gringotts, where everyone had decided to meet. She was excited to see everyone, the only people that she had seen since they got back last week was James and Gemma, and she wanted to see everyone else. She felt a pair of hands cover her eyes from behind.

"Guess who!" She heard from behind her.

"LILS!" She screeched and turned around and hugged her friend, "How was your summer?"

"Boring, my father was never home so I couldn't really do anything…" she said, "But how was Egypt?"

"Absolutely amazing! Neville finally purposed to Susanna!" Alice gushed, and Lily squealed, "And I got to see all of the pyramids!"

"Oh my gosh that sounds like so much fun!" Lily said, as Alice launched into stories about her trip.

Remus, Peter and Gemma showed up shortly after and right on time seeing as the other girls were early (Lily out of habit and bored and Alice being so excited her mother took her early to get her out of the house), and James showed up late (naturally). Then the small group made their way to Flourish and Blotts to get their books, and once they finished buying their books they made their way to the back right corner waited because that's where they planned on meeting with the others. Sure enough Sirius, Adrian, and Adaline showed up in the back corner, grinning, and giving everyone hugs.

"Summer has been far too long…" Adrian groaned.

"Tell me about it…" Sirius muttered darkly.

"Did you guys get to see each other often?" Gemma asked, hopeful.

"Yeah, but that was the only good part. We had all sorts of lessons and stuff that is completely boring. What did everyone do over the summer?" said Adaline.

"I went to Egypt," Alice said, grinning.

"Lucky!" squealed Adaline, "I would love to travel the world!"

Alice grinned and started talking quickly about Egypt, and everyone listened, enjoying all of her stories.

"There you three are!" said an angry Lucius Malfoy as we found the group.

They all froze, and he stared in shock, until, "WAIT TIL I TELL YOUR PARENTS!"

They all exchanged nervous looks and then Sirius, Adaline and Adrian all ran after him, leaving the rest of their friends standing, and hoping that they would not get into too much trouble. No matter how doubtful that was.

They finished their school shopping and kept a look out for their friends, hoping to get a clue as to how much trouble they were actually in. They had no such luck. At the end of the day they all hugged each other goodbye, with excitement that they would see each other in a few days at Kings Cross, all of them were ready for the summer to be over.

                                             ***

The night before school started Peter laid in bed, trying to tune out the screaming match going on downstairs. He didn't know what they were fighting about now, but he honestly didn't care. The only thing that really matter was that his mother didn't run off on him again. That if she even felt like leaving he just hoped that she would take him with her. He almost wished that she would leave and take him. His father was slowly changing into a cold and distant man, as he started talking more with this 'Tom Riddle' fellow. Peter didn't know who he was; he just knew that nothing good was going to come from him. In fact he was sure quite the opposite was going to come from him. He knew that his mother hated the man, and she liked most people (the exception being his grandmother and Tom…).

He rolled over in bed, pulled his pillow over his ears, and fell asleep. Thankful that tomorrow night he would not fall asleep to arguing.

                                             ***

The next morning was crazy at the Potter Manor, the Ryans and the Prewetts had stayed the night, and everyone was currently making sure everything was in their trunks so they could get into the Ministry cars and head off towards the station.

"Hurry up!" Melissa Prewett yelled at the four students.

Soon after that they were scrambling down the stairs, trunks in tow, and piling into the cars. Excited to be on their way to Kings Cross and back to Hogwarts.

                                             ***

The train ride to Kings Cross was an awkward one for the Evans. The tension could have been cut with a knife. Petunia was sitting in the passenger seat sulking, she had been forced by their father to come along. Lily was sitting in her seat quietly, trying to get Petunia's cruel words out of her head.

" _Why do I need to go dad? I don't want to be that close to **them** …" Petunia complained, “Besides, Amber invited me to go shopping! I want to go shopping with my friends!”_

" _She's you're sister! And as often as you don't get along you used to be best friends, and as a family we support each other no matter what!" her father said, “Besides you saw Amber yesterday!”_

" _She stopped being family to me when she went to that stupid school!" Petunia spat, “Besides I saw Ashley yesterday and they have been more family to me than either of you! So if you are telling me to spend time with my family I should be spending time with them!”_

" _Tuney, I know that you don't mean that. You're just angry. I know that it's hard, but you don't have a choice. You are coming to the station and saying goodbye to your sister. It is what your mother would have wanted."_

_Lily could hear Petunia groan from her place in the room next door. She took deep breaths, trying to blink back the tears in her eyes._

And as she sat in the car and again started to blink back her tears. It stung to know that her sister hated her that much. She had known that her sister wasn't her biggest fan since she had gotten her letter; she knew that Petunia was jealous of her, and Lily knew that if Petunia was a witch and she wasn't that she would be jealous too. But she would have gotten over it by now. Petunia clearly had not.

Lily was shaken from her musing when they arrived at Kings Cross, and any sad feelings that she had immediately disappeared. She was going back to Hogwarts. And she couldn't wait. Her father got her a trolley, and she placed her trunk on it, and her and her family made their way towards platforms nine and ten. Once they got there she turned to her father, who was smiling at her proudly.

"Bye daddy! I'll miss you! I promise to write!" Lily said, hugging her father.

"Behave Lils, I'll miss you. Have a fun year!" Her father said, smiling at his daughter.

Then Lily turned to her sister, "By Tuney…"

Her sister ignored her looking anywhere else but her and Lily sighed, before running through to Platform 9 ¾, where she made her way onto the train and into an empty compartment and she waited for her friends to arrive, hoping that she wouldn’t have to wait too long.

                                             ***

Peter was the first to arrive, soon followed by Sirius, Adrian and Adaline. The train had started moving before Alice, Gemma and James joined them.

"Hey guys!" Alice said, excitedly, "How is everyone?"

"Fantastic," said Adrian.

"Never better," said Sirius.

"Fabulous," said Adaline, "We're finally free!"

"Good," Lily said, laughing at her friends.

"Fine," said Peter, trying to get his mothers bruised up face out his mind.

"Great," said Remus, smirking.

"Dandy," Gemma said chuckling.

"PEACHY!" said James, loudly; clearly he had been waiting to say that.

This caused the group to burst into laughter, and once they started they started, they couldn't stop. Everyone was just happy to be together again. Two months had been an awfully long time. They hadn't been able to see each other the entire summer (well except at Flourish and Blotts, but that had not ended well).

They all launched into stories about their summers. Alice's were bright and cheery, Sirius, Adrian, Peter and Adaline's were mischievous and full of annoyance, James and Gemma's were full of Quidditch, while Remus and Lily told stories of their boredom. This seemed to pass the time quickly, and soon enough they were changing into their robes (girls first and boys second) and piling into the carriages.

"What do you think is pulling the carriages?" asked Peter.

"Probably magic, some simple enchantments," said Remus logically.

"I think its unicorns."

Everyone turned and gave Sirius a blank look, and he just shrugged.

"You have to admit it's plausible…"

“THANK YOU!” Gemma shouted, and all of the girls’ eyes grew wide remembering a very similar argument.

“IT’S BEING PULLED BY BLOODY HORSES!” Adrian screeched, causing everyone to look at her.

Lily just shook her head, and bit her lip to refrain from making a comment.

Adaline, did not, "You're all idiots" she told them laughing.

"Hey!" they all cried in unison.

"Don't deny it!" said Alice.

Everyone burst into laughter. All thinking the same thing, this was going to be a good year.

 


	26. Chapter 26

The first few weeks went by quickly. Gemma, James, Sirius and Adrian spent most of it freaking out over Quidditch tryouts, while Remus, Lily and Adaline buried themselves in the Library (and when Remus wasn't there, Severus), while Alice and Peter completely ignored any work and went outside to enjoy the fresh air.

Luckily though, today was the day. The long awaited Quidditch tryouts. The four of them sat at breakfast hardly touching the food in front of them. Tryouts were in an hour.

"Guys, you need to eat," Adaline said, "You don't want to pass out and make a fool of yourself."

At that they exchanged nervous looks and started digging into their food. Lily just shook her head at her friends, standing up because she just finished her chocolate muffin.

"Good luck guys," she said, "I'm sure you'll all make it."

“You aren’t going to come watch?” James said, giving her puppy dog eyes.

“No, sorry, you’ll do great though!” shooting her friend a smile.

With that she got up from the table and went to meet Sev.

"Sev!" she yelled, running to hug her friend.

"Hey Lils!" he said, looking over his shoulder quickly, "Read to do the Charms essay?"

"I guess so," Lily said, laughing, "It shouldn't be too bad though, I actually enjoy Charms."

"I will never understand why you like that class so much…" Severus muttered, and Lily laughed.

Once at the Library they found a table in the back and began to work. After about an hour and a half they had their essays finished, they made their way out to sit by the lake.

"So how do you think your friends are going to do in their tryouts?"

"I think they'll be fine, they have practiced a ton, and wouldn't stop talking about it, so I really would hate it if they didn't make the team."

"I hope Black and Potter don't make it," he said honestly, "Their heads are a lot bigger than they need to be already, they don't need to get any bigger."

Lily just rolled her eyes, she knew that he did not like her Gryffindor guy friends, and part of her thought that it was more because of jealousy than anything else.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see," Lily said, not really wanting to argue with her friend.

"So what class is your favorite this year?" Severus asked.

"Potions or charms," Lily said, smiling, "Which is yours?"

"I like Potions," he said, "I want to do research, there has to be a way to make the potions brew faster…"

"I'm sure if you looked through the Library you would be able to find plenty of books about it. Or there will at least be clues about what you could do…"

"Probably, that's a great idea, thanks Lils!"

"No problem!"

They sat outside talking for another few hours, before Alice made her way towards them.

"Hey Lils, I think you might be needed in the common room soon, the team list is going to be put up, and if any of them didn't make it we are going to have major clean up duty to do."

"UGH! Don't even mention that possibility!" Lily said, cringing at the thought that one of her friends might not have made the team, and that they would be devastated, then she turned to Severus, "I should go Sev!"

"Bye Lils," he said reluctantly and mentally cursing her Gryffindor friends, they got her all the time, why couldn’t they let him have her for a day?

And with that Lily and Alice made their way towards the common room.

"Did they mention how they did?" Lily asked, curious and trying to figure out what she was going into.

"They all seemed to think that they did alright, but I also know that some seventh years tried out, so I don't know how that would have worked…"

Lily nodded in understanding, "We may need to make a kitchen run later."

"Yeah, most likely, hopefully for celebratory stuff, not comfort food…"

"I have my fingers crossed…"

Once they got to the common room they found their friends sitting, looking anxiously at the portrait hole, waiting for the Quidditch Captain (Ken Williams). Lily almost found it funny how their faces fell when they realized it wasn't the Captain coming through the portrait. They all had the same nervous look on their faces, and Gemma was chewing on her fingernails.

"Gem, you really need to stop that," Adaline said, and Gemma looked as though she hadn't known what she was doing, and stopped.

Then the Captain came into the room, Adrian looked like she was about to be sick. He walked up, and put the list on the board. Everyone pushed and shoved trying to get towards the small sheet of paper. Gemma got elbowed in the stomach, and Sirius took an elbow to the head, but he, of course, elbowed the kid right back. After they group made it to the front they looked at the sheet.

**Quidditch Team: 1772**

**Seeker:**

_Justin Boot_

**Reserve:**

_Abby Jackson_

**Beaters:**

_Justine Walters_

_Sirius Black_

**Reserves:**

_Adrian Prince_

_Adam Goldstein_

**Chasers:**

_James Potter_

_Ben Bell_

_Ken Williams (Captain)_

**Reserves:**

_Jason Smith_

_Jenny Boot_

_Jeff Hobsen_

**Keeper:**

_Frank Longbottom_

**Reserve:**

_Elyse Turner_

Alice watched as Gemma's face fell, and she felt terrible.

"I didn't even make the reserve…" Gemma whispered, as she turned towards the girls dormitories.

"I'll go get chocolate…" Adrian said, knowing that her friend would need to calm down before seeing her.

Adrian was ecstatic about making the team, even though it was just as a reserve. She felt bad that Gemma didn't make the team, so she decided that she would celebrate on the way to the kitchens, that way she could try and comfort her friend.

"Okay," Alice said, smiling at her friend, "Congratulations!"

And after a quick hug she headed up the stairs towards Gemma.

"I'll come with you!" Adaline said, smiling at her sister, and they headed off towards the kitchens.

"Congratulations!" Lily said, and she ran and hugged James happily, extremely excited for him and Sirius.

James wrapped his arms around her and spun her around in a circle. When he put her down she ran and quickly hugged Sirius as well.

"I am so proud of both of you!" she said grinning.

"Congrats man," Peter said, smiling at his friends.

"Thank Merlin both of you made the team, I wouldn't want one of you to murder the other while they slept," Remus said, grinning, as the group burst out in laughter.

                                             ***

Adaline and Adrian practically skipped to the kitchens.

"Ana I am so proud of you!" Adaline said, smiling at her sister, proudly, using her sister's old nick name.

"Thanks," Adrian said, giving her sister a hug.

Knowing her sister was proud of her was amazing. Neither of them ever had the parental love, so they basically raised each other, so knowing how proud of her her sister was, was great. It was like having her parents being proud of her, because she knew that she would never make her actual parents proud.

"Do you think that Gemma will be mad at me?" she asked, nervously.

"No, at least not for long," Adaline said, "She maybe a little jealous, and angry at first, but soon she'll be excited. She'll support you and cheer you on."

"Thanks Ada," she said, using her sisters old nick name.

"No problem Ana," she said, grinning.

They got the chocolate, and walked happily together towards the common room.

                                             ***

Alice made her way into their dormitory, and found Gemma sitting on her bed, furiously wiping her eyes. Alice made her way to her friend and hugged her. Gemma offered her a small smile, and continued to try not to cry. She had wanted that spot so bad.

"I can't believe I didn't get," she said, furious with herself that she didn't make the team.

She should have played harder. Practiced longer.

"Don't worry…" Alice said, "You'll make it next year. You just get another year of practice, and then you will be unstoppable."

Gemma gave her friend a small smile, trying to believe her friends words.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, while Gemma calmed herself down.

"Do you think that I should go talk to the boys?" she said.

"Probably, let them know you're happy for them…"

Gemma nodded, and the pair of them made their way back down into the common room. She spotted her friends sitting off by the window, talking. When Lily looked over and spotted her she stood up and gave her friend a hug.

"I'm sure you were fantastic, the Captain is just blind…" Lily whispered in her ear, and Gemma laughed slightly.

"Thanks Lils," she whispered back, and then she made her way over to James and Sirius, and pulled them both into a hug.

"Congratulations guys, you were both brilliant!" she said, smiling.

"So were you I can't believe that you didn't make it!" James said, and Sirius nodded in agreement.

Gemma just shrugged, trying not to think about it. She would not cry in front of the boys. Remus stood up and gave her a hug.

"You'll kick everyone's arse next year," he told her, grinning, but blushing a little.

"Thanks Remus," she said smiling, and Peter gave her smile.

That is when Adrian and Adaline came back into the common, and they dragged the girls up to the dormitory.

"We have chocolate!" Adrian said grinning like a fool.

"WOO!" Alice said with a huge grin on her face.

"Congratulations Adrian!" Gemma said, pushing her jealousy aside, and hugged her friend.

"Thanks," she said, "You know that the only reason you didn't make it is because the other two were seventh years right?"

"You really think that's why?" Gemma asked.

"Gem, you did amazing! Sure, Justin probably played a little better, but he has had more experience because he was the reserve last year, and Abby played well, but it the reserve could have gone to either of you. She just got it because she's a seventh year, and it will be her last time to play at school."

Gemma smiled at her friend, and tried to believe what she had said.

"Maybe you can ask Ken if you can practice with us sometime!" Adrian added.

"That would be fun!" Gemma said, and they spent the rest of the night giggling, and talking about random things like friends do.

 

 


	27. Chapter 27

Lily made her way down towards the Library, and she was all but skipping. She loved autumn, all the colorful leaves, the nice weather that wasn't too cold and wasn't too hot. It was just perfect. It was almost Halloween and the decorations were starting to go up all over the castle, the pumpkins and Jack-O-Lanterns, the spider webs, plus all of the Hogwarts ghosts flying around. Peeves was having way to much fun scaring unsuspecting students by popping out of suites of armors and hitting them with water. This amused Lily to no end, but others, like Filch, did not find it nearly as amusing. Nor did the poor first years that he often targeted; Lily did feel kind of bad for them (though not Filch…no one felt bad for Filch…).

When she reached the doors of the Library she sighed, wishing Severus would want to study outside, but he claimed it would be too distracting. Lily guessed he was right, but she still would have rather been outside. She scanned the tables looking for the familiar black hair that belonged to her best friend. He was sitting in the very back corner away from all windows (Lily suspected this had something to do with living in the dungeons and not seeing light as often…because why else would you not want to study by a window?), and Lily walked over and sat across from him.

"Hey Sev!" she said, happily, as she started pulling out her Potions essay.

"Hey Lils," he said, looking up briefly from his Potions book.

"Are you excited that Halloween is almost here?" she asked him.

"Not really," he said, shaking his head, "The feast isn't as good as everyone makes it out to be, besides, I'm more of a winter person."

"REALLY!" she replied loudly, earning several 'SHHHS!', "You don't like it? What about the Jack-O-Lanterns? The candy? Leaf piles? It is absolutely amazing!"

"I guess," Severus said, shrugging, then changing the topic, not really caring too much and not wanting to offend his friend, "Did you do the Charms essay yet?"

"Of course I did! It's due on Monday! I finished it last night!"

"I still need to finish it…" he said, "I'm not very good at Charms, well at least not nearly as good as you are."

"You're great at Charms Sev!" she said, giving her friend a look.

"Still, I'm behind the arrogant prats you call friends," he spat venomously.

"They really aren't that bad Sev…"

He snorted, and they continued to work on their essays in silence. Well, Lily was working, Severus was watching as her green eyes sparkled with interest as she read the book for information. Her fingers playing with her fiery red hair that was falling just past her shoulders in light curls. He was brought out of his thoughts of Lily when Adaline joined them at their table.

"Hey guys!" she said, happily as she sat down next to Lily.

"Hey Adaline!" Lily said, happy to see her friend.

"Hey," Severus said, but he couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed that it was no longer him and Lily.

The three of them continued to work on their essays long into the afternoon. Occasionally asking questions and talking, just enjoying the comfortable silence. Once they were done with their essays they made their way towards the Great Hall.

"Are you going to the match tomorrow Sev?" Lily asked.

"No, probably not," Severus replied, "I don't really like Quidditch."

"I think it is quite interesting, and Sirius and James are on the team so we need to go and cheer them on!" Lily said, and Adaline nodded.

"Besides, if one of the beaters gets injured Adrian might get to play!" Adaline said, not wanting anyone to get hurt, but wishing her sister could play.

"The beater reserves are hardly ever needed, she won't play. You two should join me in the Library," Snape said, not really liking the idea of his two best friends cheering on the biggest prats in the school.

"Sorry Sev, we're still going to go and cheer our friends on," Lily said, and Adaline nodded in agreement.

Severus just shrugged. When they got to the Great Hall they parted ways, Severus going to the Slytherin table and the girls going to the Gryffindor table. Alice, Gemma and Adrian were already there.

"Hey, how was the Library?" Alice asked as they sat down.

"I don't see how you can enjoy sitting in the Library," Adrian said, shuddering at the thought.

"I don't see how you don't enjoy it," Adaline said rolling her eyes at her sister, "And it was great Alice, I now have no homework to do this weekend."

"What else is Sunday night for?" Gemma asked, and Adrian nodded vigorously in agreement.

Lily and Adaline just rolled their eyes; Remus and Peter came and joined them.

"What is Sunday night for?" Peter asked.

"Homework," Gemma stated, and Peter nodded in agreement while Remus rolled his eyes.

"Did either of you do your Charms essay?" Remus asked, looking at Adaline and Lily.

"Yeah," they said in unison, causing them to giggle.

"Was it easy?" he asked, "I haven't gotten around to starting it yet."

"Yeah, it was, you’ll have no problems with it!" Adaline replied.

"Good," he said, laughing.

"Guys!" Alice said loudly.

They all turned and looked at her confused, and Peter asked, "What?"

"WE SHOULD MAKE A LEAF PILE TOMORROW AFTER THE GAME!"

The people around them were giving them funny looks, but Lily replied just as enthusiastically, "WE SHOULD!"

The other's nodded in agreement.

"We should what?" asked James, as he and Sirius sat down next to them.

"Make a leaf pile tomorrow!" Alice said, excitedly.

"That would be fun!" Sirius said, and James nodded, "We could build it by the lake and use the swing to swing into it!"

"That is a brilliant idea!" Gemma said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

And so it was agreed after the match tomorrow they would build the largest leaf pile, and they spent the rest of dinner and the walk to the common room discussing it. When they entered the common room they found Frank, Candice and Tyler were sitting by the fire so they made their way over and sat down by them.

"Hey guys!" Gemma said.

"Hey! How are you enjoying second year?" Frank asked.

"It's great!" Alice said, her voice a little higher than usual, "How's third year treating you? How was Hogsmeade?"

"Hogsmeade was beautiful! You guys will love it next year!" Candice said, excitedly.

"Did you have a date?" Lily asked, grinning.

"No I just went with Tyler, but Frank had a date!" she said wiggling her eyebrows at him.

"You didn't have a date Candi?" Sirius asked, "I would have thought a girl like you would…"

Candice laughed, "You are charming."

"Who did you go with Frank?" Adaline asked, curiously.

"Oh…ummm…Charlotte Turner," he said, grinning, and Lily watched as Alice's face fell for a split second before turning into a grin.

"That's great Frank!" Alice said, grinning and wigging her eyebrows.

"Hey, do you three want to join our leaf pile fun tomorrow?" Remus asked, and they all nodded.

After spending a few hours talking and playing games they decided to go up to bed, and get to sleep. Once all of the curtains were closed around the girls' beds, Lily walked over and crawled into Alice's.

"Lily?" she asked rolling over, somewhat confused.

"Alice dear, when did you start liking Frank?" she asked bluntly.

"Ummm, what?"

"You fancy him, I can tell, when did you start?"

"At the end of last year," she admitted, "I saw him a little over the summer because our families are kind of close and his older brother was doing curse breaking in Egypt so we hung out a little there…and well, he's just Frank…how could I not fancy him?"

Lily hugged her friend, "I think you two would make an adorable couple."

"Thanks Lily… but apparently he disagrees with us…"

"Because he took a girl to Hogsmeade, I'm sure if you were a year older he would have taken you instead."

"I doubt it Lils, but thanks. They're dating, so clearly he likes her…"

"Oh Al, I'm so sorry," Lily said, hugging her friend.

"Don't worry about it…but can this stay in between us…"

"Of course, your secret is safe with me…"

"Thanks Lily."

"No problem. Night Alice."

"Night Lily."

And with that Lily went to her own bed, and fell asleep almost instantly.

The next morning spirits were high as the girls got ready. They decided to go all out to support their friends in their first match. They had red and gold face paint, and Gryffindor house shirts. Lily felt extra full of house pride with her red hair. Once they were all ready they made their way down to the Great Hall where the boys were already sitting. Peter was digging into his food, Remus was reading, and James and Sirius were staring nervously at their empty plates.

Lily walked over and sat next to James, then addressed him and Sirius, "You two need to eat."

"I've been telling them that for the past five minutes," Remus told Lily, looking up from his book.

"Do you two want to fall off of your brooms?" Lily said, and when they both shook their heads she added, "Then eat."

They listen to her and grabbed some eggs and began eating, while Lily grabbed some French toast. Lily watched as the rest of the players filtered in, and she watched as the Slytherins yelled insults at them. She didn't think that she would ever understand how her best friend could survive in such a terrible house, much less be friends with any of them.

When the Gryffindor Captain stood up and motioned to the door James and Sirius stood up to get ready to go. Lily stood up quickly and gave each of the boys a hug and a quick peck on the cheek. Adaline and Gemma hugged them as well, but everyone else was on the other side of the table so they just wished them luck.

Lily did not notice the glare that the two boys got from Severus Snape, who felt like he wanted to be sick. He got up and went to the Library, knowing that he would be tempted to hex Potter and Black out of the sky if he were to attend the match.

Shortly later the group made their way to the pitch.

"How do you think they'll do?" Peter asked.

"They'll be fine," Adrian said, "We have this match in the bag."

"I don't know," Remus said, "The Slytherins tend to play dirty…"

"I hope none of them get injured…" Adaline said, sounding slightly nervous for her friends.

"I'm sure they'll be fine…" Gemma said.

"WELCOME TO THE FIRST QUIDDUTCH MATCH OF THE YEAR!" Tyler's voice could be heard around the pitch (which was surprising because of the deafening cheering) "I WOULD LIKE TO WELCOME THE GRYFFINDOR TEAM TO THE PITCH: SEEKER BOOT, KEEPER LONGBOTTOM, BEATERS BLACK AND WALTERS, AND CHASERS POTTER, BELL AND CAPTAIN KEN WILLIAMS!"

The crowd cheered loudly, droning out the Slytherins booing, it seemed like most of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had chosen to back up the Gryffindors.

"And I guess I need to announce the snakes as well, you have seeker Malfoy, keeper and Captain Nott, beaters Black (Bellatrix) and Yaxely, and chasers Lestrange, Goyle and Crabbe," Tyler said unenthusiastically, he could hardly be heard over the booing.

Gemma watched as the game began and wished that she could be out there circling the pitch looking for the snitch. She watched as James took the quaffle and raced down the pitch and scored. She watched Sirius whacking bludgers at the Slytherin chasers, and she could see why the two of them had made the team. If she didn't know any better she wouldn't think that they were second years .She also would have thought that they were naturally amazing if she hadn't known that they spent most of their time practicing over the summer, and most years before that.

Adrian watched, cringing at every foul move that the Slytherins made, not wanting anyone on the team to be injured. As much as she wanted to play she didn't want it to be because someone was injured. She watched, hardly blinking for two hours until Justin caught the snitch, ending the game 270-110.

"That was a close game…" Alice said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

It had been incredibly stressful to watch with all of the fouls and injuries. Luckily nothing major, just some bruising

"PARTY IN THE COMMON ROOM!" a Gryffindor 7th year yelled, and the idea was supported by the many cheering Gryffindors.

The second year Gryffindors made their way towards the lake to start with the leaf piles, knowing that James, Sirius, Frank, Tyler and Candice would meet them down there. Lily, Adaline and Remus all conjured rakes for everyone, using a spell that Lily had found in the Library randomly, and they all started raking.

When Frank, Tyler and Candice joined them the used their wands to bring leaves closer, and started adding them to the top of the pile, and by the time James and Sirius joined them they were almost done.

"Congratulations guys!" Adaline said, excitedly.

"Thanks," they said, and then smirking they ran towards the pile and dove in.

"HEY!" Lily shouted at them, "I wanted to do that!"

"You snooze you lose!" Sirius shouted and Lily dove in after them.

Soon everyone was jumping, swinging and playing the leaf pile. Occasionally they would get out and fix it so that it was higher and wider, then they would start the process all over again.

"We need to do this more often!" Alice said, laughing.

"We should do it every year after the first game!" Lily suggested, "And then whenever else we want to after that!"

They all laughed and agreed, before deciding to go inside and go to the victory party. The girls pulling leaves out of their hair the entire way up to the common room.

"Filch is going to kill us, after all the leaf pieces we left scattered," Adrian said laughing evil.

"Oh! I didn't even think about that!" Lily said, "I feel kind of bad now…"

"Lily, it's just Filch, trust me, you don't want to be nice to him."

Lily still looked like she felt bad but they dropped the topic, and went to get ready for the party.

Halloween on the following Tuesday had been highly amusing. James, Sirius, Peter and Remus had charmed the pumpkins to sing obnoxiously whenever a Slytherin past. Everyone but the Slytherins found this quite amusing, but no one was nearly as annoyed as one Severus Snape. He did not like those conceited boys, and he really wished Lily would stop hanging around with the likes of them. They were arses, even if she did not see that yet, he would make sure she did.

James could say the same about the Slytherin. He did not understand why Lily and Adaline hung out with him. He was a greasy haired git who only cared about himself. He could see that he was selfish and would probably only end up hurting the two of them, and James got the vibe that he hated him. James had no idea why though, he had never talked to the guy, so how could he hate him already?

Lily on the other hand liked both of them, and wished that they would get along. She decided to ignore the glares that Sev was sending the boys, and ignore their snickering when it happened, and to simply enjoy the delicious feast. She enjoyed her pumpkin juice, and eating her chicken, excited for the desserts to come out. Last year they had Muggle candy, and she was really hoping they would have some again this year; she could really go for some M&Ms.

"Do you think that they'll have Muggle candy again this year?" Alice asked as though she was reading Lily's mind.

"Alice you just read my mind! I really hope so, but we are cutting you off after only a few pieces," Lily replied.

"WHY?" Alice cried, startling some unsuspecting first year, causing him to almost fall off of the bench.

"Does spending most of the next day in the Hospital Wing ring any bells?" Adrian asked.

"It was worth it though!" she argued, and they all rolled their eyes.

Needless to say, Alice stuffed as much candy into her mouth as she could, and before anyone could do anything she had already eaten too much of it. She smirked in victory as Gemma's eyes widened in fear.

"Wow Alice, you are like a vacuum!" Sirius said, looking at the lack of candy around them, and just did an evil laugh.

They all laughed and skipped (yes, they literally skipped) all the way up to the common room where they parted ways, deciding to head up to bed. The girls should have known that Alice wasn't going to let them sleep, in fact she continued to jump on their beds until about 2, when she fell asleep on top of Gemma's legs.

Let's just say the next day was not a pleasant one.

 

 


	28. Chapter 28

The rest of the time until Christmas break flew by, they pranked the Slytherins and the Slytherins pranked back, causing many problems with Severus and his two Gryffindor friends, and causing the hatred between him and the boys to grow.

But while Severus and his two friends drifted apart slightly the Gryffindor first years were getting closer and closer, they were all almost inseparable. They were only seen parted when people were in the library or at Quidditch practice.

Because of all the time they had spent together the girls really weren't surprised when the boys didn't show up for breakfast, nor were they surprised when they didn't see them getting into a carriage, they just assumed they were late. The same thing had happened last year anyways and they had made the train then.

"You don't think that they will actually miss the train do you?" Gemma asked, a smirk on her face, "Aunt Isabel would flip, and James would not be allowed to fly, do you know how much taunting I could do?!"

"I highly doubt they are that stupid…" Lily said, and everyone gave her a look that clearly said 'are we talking about the same four people?'

They all burst into giggles, knowing that it was something that their friends would do. The idea just became more plausible when ten minutes had passed and there was still no sign of the boys.

"You don't think they are that stupid do you?" Alice asked, "Because Aunt Isabel will most likely kill us too…We're supposed to keep him in line…"

"We're?" Gemma asked raising her eyebrows, "I seem to recall she told  _you_  that not me. We both know that you are the most responsible out of the three of us."

Alice glared at her friend, knowing she was right.

"Sirius is in trouble…" Adrian said, after fifteen minutes had gone by, "His mother will kill him, he'll be lucky if he can hear when the banshee is done screeching."

"Is it really that bad?" Lily asked.

"Yes," Adaline said, shuddering, "I swear all of the maniac pureblood mothers take a course on how to sound like a banshee."

Lily, Alice and Gemma all cringed. And they sat, talking about what they were going to do for Christmas, all throwing glances towards the door every so often. So when the door to the compartment opened, they all turned, expecting to see the laughing faces of their friends. Instead they found the thin, pale, sneering face of Lucius Malfoy, backed of course by his cronies. Behind him were Narcissa Black, Severus, and the ape Crabbe. Narcissa was shooting them an apologetic look from behind her long blonde hair, while Severus was refusing to look at Lily or Adaline. Crabbe was standing behind Malfoy, sneering, with his nose stuck in the air like he was better than everyone.

"Adrian, Adaline, if you do not come with me I will tell your mother that you are still talking to blood traitors and mudbloods," Lucius said, glaring around the compartment, but refusing to get to close, as if he was afraid to get a disease, "But if you do the smart thing and join me your little secret will be safe with me."

"Tell mother whatever you like," Adrian said, glaring at him bravely.

He just glared, clearly not getting the reaction he wanted, "You will have to spend break locked in your room. Is that really what you want?"

"It's better than being stuck in the same room as the family," Adaline said, and Lucius sauntered away, seething.

"Prick actually thinks that I would spend most of my break outside of my room? I mean really, even if I wasn't locked in I would spend my time there," Adrian said, rolling her eyes.

They continued to insult Malfoy and his stupidity until the compartment door opened again. This time it was their friends, looking slightly annoyed and James, Remus, and Peter were supporting pink hair, but otherwise alright.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!" Alice shrieked.

The boys' eyes widened in shock, Alice shouting and cursing?

"Sorry  _mum_ …" James said rolling his eyes.

"That doesn't answer my question James Harold Potter!" she said glaring at him.

"It's actually a funny story…" James started, but before could say anything else on the matter Sirius cut in.

"It all started last night…" he started, and the girls sat back in their seats, knowing this was going to be a long story.

_The boys were sitting on their comfortable beds, staring at their trunks as if willing them to pack themselves, but knowing if they procrastinated any longer they would almost miss the train…again._

_"We really need to learn the spell that packs your stuff for you…" Sirius said, saying what was on all of their minds._

_"I really don't want to pack…" complained Peter, looking around the room at all of their stuff._

_If one of their mothers were to walk into their dormitory they would all run for cover. It looked like a war zone. Socks were everywhere, chocolate frog cards could have been mistaken for rugs, and candy wrappers were scattered across the room. Then you had all of the ties, some hanging around bedposts_ _, some on the floor._ _Their robes and uniforms were everywhere. It really looked as though something had exploded._

_"That means that we actually have to have the room somewhat clean…" Remus said, shuddering at the thought._

_"Merlin knows what we could find…" James added._

_"Do we have to pack?" whined Sirius._

_"Yes," Remus said._

_So groaning they all got up and started sorting through their stuff._

_"We could just play Exploding Snap instead…" Peter offered, pulling a deck out of one of the humongous piles._

_"Sounds like a plan…" Remus said, dropping a mysterious sock back onto the pile._

_"Okay!" James shouted, happy to have something else to do._

_"That's better than cleaning!" Sirius said, happily._

_They after about two hours Peter and Sirius were tied with three wins each, and were facing off to see who was the champion of Exploding Snap, while James and Remus sat laughing, cheering Peter on._

_"Wow, thanks guys!" Sirius said, as the cards exploded, burning his eyebrows._

_"No problem!" James said, as Peter did a little happy dance of victory._

_"Pete," Remus said, "You should never do that again."_

_"Yeah, I wasn't planning on it…" Peter said, shaking his head, and they all laughed._

_"Should we pack or sleep?" Remus said, and they laughed at the question, all climbing into their warm beds._

_None of them thinking to set an alarm, or to pack anything (forgetting all about last years events). So the next morning they were awoken when Star the house elf woke them up._

_"Masters are going to be late! The carriages leave in ten minutes!" she said, and the boys all jumped out of bed._

_"Why did we not learn last year?" Peter asked as they all scrambled to throw anything and everything into their trunks._

_"Because we…" Remus started, "Wait, I can't think of anything."_

_They all laughed and continued throwing things in their trunks at random._

_"Guys! My trunk isn't closing!" Sirius shouted._

_"Sit on it!" James offered._

_"I am!"_

_So James quickly ran over and jumped onto his trunk, and the two of them locked it, and then quickly did the same to James'. When the four of them had their trunks packed they quickly changed into clean clothes that Star had brought them, and then they dragged their trunks into the Great Hall and dove into the last carriage._

_"Whew. That was close…" James said, grinning._

_"I'm hungry…" Peter complained, as the carriage started moving._

_"Me too… Breakfast is my favorite meal," Sirius said, and everyone rolled their eyes._

_When the train pulled into the Hogsmeade Station the boys got out and literally jumped onto the train as it started moving._

_"Let's go find the girls," James said._

_"What about our trunks?" Peter asked._

_"They're trying something new this year," Remus said, "They'll show up in our compartment about half way through the train ride."_

_"Will that work?" Peter asked, uncertainly._

_"It should," Remus said._

_"Well, then let's go find the girls," Sirius said, and they started walking._

_They were walking for about five minutes when they came across a group of Slytherins picking on a few first year Hufflepuffs._

_"Leave them alone!" James said._

_"Would you rather we picked on you?" one of them growled._

_James glared and pulled out his wand, while the Slytherins erupted with laughter._

_"The wee second year thinks he could beat us…" one of the girls laughed._

_"You wouldn't attack me would you cousin?" the other girl asked._

_"Of course I would Bella dear," Sirius said, with so much hatred in his voice his friends almost flinched, but she looked unfazed._

_"You don't have the guts," she threatened._

_"Try me," he said, glaring and pulling out his wand._

_"Stop," a voice came from behind Bellatrix, "It will bring shame to the family if the two of you fight."_

_Bellatrix turned around and glared at her sister. The two of them could not have looked any different if they tried. Bellatrix, who was two years older than her sister, had black curly hair that looked more like a mane than anything else. Her eyes were dark and had a crazed look about them. She looked evil. Her younger sister Narcissa on the other hand looked sweet. She had the same high cheek bones and slender face, but her eyes were a soft watery blue. Her hair was completely straight, and such a light blonde that it could have been mistaken for white._

_With one last look at them Bellatrix started walking away, the rest of the Slytherins following her. Then she turned around so quickly that no one saw it coming and dyed everyone's, minus Sirius' (couldn't embarrass the family), hair bright pink._

_"You're lucky I'm feeling nice today blood traitors!" she yelled at them as she entered one of the compartments._

"That is when we made our way here and found you guys," Sirius finished.

"Can you fix our hair?" James asked, looking desperately at Lily.

"I can yes, but I like the pink…"

James glared and Alice said, "You should leave it, maybe it would teach them not to be late again!"

"Alice!" James groaned.

"Why can't Remus do it?" Gemma asked, confused.

"I'm not nearly as good at Charms as Lily is; besides, I think she knows a little more about hair than I do…" Remus replied, and Lily turned bright red.

Gemma just shrugged, "Fair point."

With that Lily fixed the boys hair, though she thought about leaving some of it pink (in the back where they couldn’t see it of course), but she controlled herself.

"How about we play Exploding Snap?" Peter said, pulling the deck out of his pocket.

"You are  _so_ on!" Sirius said, and everyone got into a circle, and started to play.

When they were ten minutes from the Station it was clear that Adaline had not lost her touch because she won every time.

"Remind me to never play against her," James grumbled, while she smirked, gathering all of the chocolate frogs she just won.

"We should sort through our trunks…" Remus said, and all of the boys groaned.

They pulled their trunks off of the racks, and started going through them, swapping clothes while the girls looked on with disgust.

"I think that sock has something growing on it…" Gemma said in disgust, and the girls nodded, eyeing the boys carefully.

They finished just as the red train pulled into Kings Cross Station. After giving everyone quick hugs they parted and went their separate ways.

James, Alice and Gemma made their way over to Larraine Ryan. Marie was already there talking with little Jake. When he spotted his sister he sprinted towards her, away from a laughing Marie.

"GEMMA!" he shouted, throwing his arms around his older sister.

"Hey Jake," she said, hugging him.

When they got to her mother she gave her a quick hug, and then started telling her brother about her year. Larraine moved to hug the other two.

"Did you get into any trouble?" she asked, looking in between the four of them.

"Of course not!" James said.

"For some reason I don't believe you…" she said, "But we can discuss that later, right now the Ministry car is waiting."

"Whose house are we going to?" Gemma asked.

"Ours," her mother replied as they walked single filed out of the barrier and into the Muggle world.

Adrian, Adaline and Sirius walked slowly towards their families, each new step bringing a wave of dread. They knew that their parents wouldn't be happy, but they still would rather not go deaf.

"On a scale one to ten how dead do you think we are?" Adrian asked.

"Ten," Sirius and Adaline said in unison.

"Well, it was nice knowing you," Adrian muttered as they grew closer to their families.

Their mothers were grinning at them, but the look on their faced clearly said 'the only reason I am not yelling at you is because we are in public and I do not wish to embarrass the family, you are dead when we get home'. Now that was a look, one that the three of them had come to recognize. It was a look that could put a small sliver of fear in the rebellious children, because they knew that whatever was to come was not going to be good.

Lucius was standing behind their mothers smirking, ever so proud of himself. Bellatrix was smirking because she knew that they were going to be punished, it was almost better than having the satisfaction of hexing her cousin. Almost being the key word there.

The only two people that were happy to see them were Regulus and Henry; they ran and gave the three of them a big hug. That is what reminded the three of them why they came home, why they put up with their mothers. They wanted their younger siblings to have a good role model in their lives. Hoping every day that they would turn out more similar to them as opposed to their families.

Peter made his way to where his father was standing, not too far off from the Princes or the Blacks, and he felt his heart drop when he found that his mother was nowhere in sight.

"Hello Father," he said, in a cold voice, knowing that he was the cause of his mother not being there.

"Son," his father said, and he turned and walked away as Peter followed behind, knowing that this was not going to be a good break.

He highly doubted his mother would come home, just like last year. But at least he would get to spend the holidays with his friends, because he sure did not to spend them with his father. If he thought that his mother would leave again he would have just stayed at school.

Lily got off of the gleaming train and made her way towards the barrier, excited to see her father and Petunia.

"Daddy!" she said, when she appeared in the Muggle world, running towards her father.

"Lils!" Harry Evans said, hugging his youngest daughter.

Lily turned to hug her sister but stopped when she saw the glare her sister was giving her.

"Let's head home, shall we?" her father said, "I have something to show you girls."

So with that they pushed Lily's trunk out and towards their car, before driving off towards their house. The problem was that they kept driving. Lily watched with a confused look on her face, wondering what on earth was going on, and judging by the look on Petunia's face she was just as confused.

"Where are we going?" Petunia asked slightly annoyed, as she was not one for surprises.

"Well, I've been thinking that maybe it was time to move. The house reminds me too much of your mother and with my new promotion at work we can afford it…"

"How far would we move?" Petunia asked, nervous at the possibility of changing schools.

"I don't want to move," Lily said, liking how the house reminded her of her mother, and not wanting to go to far from Severus.

Her father didn't reply, but he pulled into the 'richer' part of the neighborhood, which seemed to calm Petunia's nerves slightly.

"When do we move?" she asked.

"This Friday," he replied.

"So that's why we have been boxing things up?! You told me we were just moving it into storage!" Petunia said.

"THIS FRIDAY? AS IN SIX DAYS FROM NOW?!" Lily shouted at the same time, "There is no way we can pack and sell the house in a week."

"The house is already sold," he said, "And you have most of your stuff at school."

"When did you sell the house?" Petunia asked, "I never saw a sign!"

"Your Aunt Helen bought it. You know she’s always loved that house," their father replied, "So even if we can't have everything out by Friday we will have a little more time because she's family."

Lily shuddered at the thought of her Aunt Helen buying their house. She was their crazy cat-lady aunt who adored Petunia, but because she was very superstitious she didn't like Lily. Apparently she had no soul and was damned to hell.

"Why does she need a three bedroom house?" Lily asked, confused.

"She wanted more room for her cats, and your Grandma Evans is going to move in with her..."

Lily started out the window. She could not believe that her father hadn't told either of them about this. She knew that she would still be able to bike to the playground and see Severus, but this was big. This was not something that you waited to tell your daughters. This definitely not something you waited to do within six days. This was something that you talked out as a family and spent time thinking through.

They pulled into a driveway, and Lily looked up to see a beautiful white house. She would admit that the house was lovely, but still, six days to move in…that was pushing it, especially when she didn’t want to move.

"Why don't you girls go and take a look inside?" their father said, as neither of the girls had gotten out of the car, "You need to pick your bedrooms between the one's upstairs."

With the bedroom part both girls flung open their doors and raced inside, flying up the grand staircase. They each flung open a different door, and instantly claimed the room as theirs. Lily's room had white walls, a four-poster bed, and a window seat with a lovely view of the trees behind their house. She had a large (much too large, in her opinion) walk in closet, and a door that connected the bathroom that her and Petunia would share.

The bathroom had a large mirror behind two sinks, a large shower that could also be a bathtub that was covered by an orange and pink curtain. Then in the corner was a door that led to the toilet.

Petunia's room was much like Lily's, except she had a small balcony outside. Lily was slightly jealous of this fact, but then she figured she could easily climb out onto the roof, and Petunia was at home all year round, thus she would have used it anyways.

"So what do you think?" Lily asked her sister, as she joined her on the balcony.

"It's nice," Petunia said, wrapping her arms around herself, "Mum would have loved it…"

"Yeah she would have…" Lily said, "How about we explore the rest of the house?"

Petunia gave her sister a soft smile, and they wandered back into the house.

"Any idea what color you are going to paint your room?" Petunia asked, being civil to her sister.

"I'm thinking about doing pale yellow," Lily said, "What about you?"

"I'm thinking about pale pink…" she replied, "Then maybe we could paint the bathroom bright orange and hot pink."

"That sounds like a plan," Lily agreed, and they continued to examine the rest of the house.

When it was time to leave Lily had three thoughts, the house was lovely, the house was too large for a family of three, and that she was definitely putting a swing outside on one of the trees.

"When do we paint and get things for our rooms?" Petunia asked.

"I was thinking that we would do that tomorrow," he said, as they pulled into their drive way, "Now, we are going out for a nice dinner tonight. I expect you both to be ready by five."

The girls nodded and went their own separate ways. Petunia went up to her room to call her friends, while Lily went to her room to write letters to her friends. She just needed to wait for her friends to owl her first…

When five o'clock came around Lily and Petunia met their father down stairs, Lily wearing a cute green dress that went to her knees, while Petunia wore a black skirt that landed just above the knee and a pink blouse. Their father joined them shortly later in black dress pants, a nice white collared shirt and a blue tie.

The ride to the restaurant was a silent one, and Lily could not shake the feeling of dread. She did not know why, but she had a feeling that she would not enjoy this dinner. Whatever was coming she had a feeling it was worse than simply moving.

When they pulled into the parking lot, her dad's eyes began scanning the crowd as if he was searching for someone. As they got out of the car her dad's eyes continued to wonder, and he made his way up to the hostess' podium.

"Reservation for Evans," he said, still looking around.

"Of course," the hostess said, "It will just be five minutes."

Her father nodded, and started making his way towards the back of the waiting area. He seemed to have found who he was looking for because he was walking straight towards a leggy brunette. She was wearing a tight red dress that looked slightly inappropriate for this restaurant. She had dull brown eyes and freckles on her nose. Her father walked over and kissed the women on the cheek, and Lily felt her stomach drop.

"Girls, I would like you to meet my girlfriend Pricilla," he said, wrapping an arm around her.

Lily wanted to be sick, and judging by the look on Petunia's face she was feeling the same way.

"Why don't you girls introduce yourselves," their father said, glaring in between the two of them.

"Hi, I'm Lily," Lily said, not moving, simply looking Pricilla up and down.

"I'm Petunia," Petunia said curtly.

The hostess delayed the conversation, which the girls were quite happy about, when she called them and led them to their table. Lily knew that this was going to be a long dinner that she was not looking forward to. Her mind was going at a hundred miles an hour and she was not sure what she thought about the situation. The one thing she was sure about was how much she hated it and that Pricilla irked her to no end.

"ALICE , GEMMA WAKE UP!" James shouted as he ran into their room excitedly.

Gemma and Alice groaned loudly from Gemma's comfortable king sized bed that they were sharing.

"NOW! I WANT TO OPEN UP PRESENTS!" James persisted, ignoring the fact that both girls had put pillows over their heads.

He walked over to them and pulled the blankets off of them, smirking.

"JAMES HARROLD POTTER IT IS 6:30 IN THE BLOODY MORNING! WHY THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU WAKING US UP?!" Gemma shouted at him, snatching the blankets back, while Alice opened her eyes just enough to glare at him.

"It's Christmas!" James said, completely confused as to why the girls had yet to have moved.

"It's still 6:30 in the morning," Alice grumbled.

"Well, duh, Gemma already said that," James pointed out, rolling his eyes, "Now get up!"

"James we can't even open presents until Neville and Susanna get here!" Gemma said, still refusing to move.

"Why the bloody hell are all of you yelling?" Marie said, glaring at James, "It's 6:30 in the morning."

Marie still looked half asleep and instead of waiting for an answer she crawled into bed with Gemma and Alice.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" James asked annoyed, "I know the time, but it's Christmas, and that means PRESENTS!"

"James not even Jake is up," Marie growled, who at the age of fifteen quite enjoyed her beauty sleep.

"He is too!" James said, "He just went to wake up all of the parents, while I got stuck with you three."

Marie flung a pillow at his head, "Then go open your presents, we'll be down later."

"They won't let us open presents until all of us are up!"

"We still need to get Neville and Susanna!" she pointed out, "Wake me up when they get here!"

"FINE! I'll go and get them!" James said, marching out of the door.

"Umm, that might not be a good idea…" Marie said, but James was already at the fireplace with a handful of floo powder.

"NEVILLE! SUSANNA!" James shouted in the living room of the tiny flat they shared.

Grumbling could be heard from the bedroom, but James decided against going to see if they were getting up. Instead he stood outside the door and started knocking repeatedly. James could hear Susanna chuckling, and Neville swearing.

"HURRY UP!" he said, and he could hear them moving around the room and a loud thud.

"We're moving," Neville grumbled, "You do realize that it isn't even seven yet?"

"Why does everyone keep telling me the time?!"

"Because it's too bloody early!" Neville said, and James heard him mutter, "I am getting way too old for this."

Susanna laughed and the pair of them came out dressed and ready for the day. Neville was glaring at James as the flooed back to the Ryans'. After arriving James made his way back into Gemma's room where he found all three girls asleep and Jake standing in the doorway looking confused.

"Let's wake them up shall we?" James said, and after sharing an evil grin they ran and jumped on the bed.

All three girls shrieked, and hit them with pillows, but eventually gave up, and they all made their way down stairs. Once in the living room they all sat and stared longingly at the piles of presents under the green tree. Opening presents went as smoothly as one would expect, and everyone was happy with their gifts.

After a delicious brunch cooked by Larraine, Melissa, Isabel and Susanna the boys and Gemma all went out to play Quidditch.

Alice, Marie and Susanna all shook their heads when they were offered to play, preferring to stay inside, where it was warm, drinking tea.

"So when do you think that the wedding is going to be?" Marie asked, excited.

"Probably around next Easter. I always wanted a spring wedding, and that way you two would be able to make it. Plus I love all of the Easter colors, so we could do something like pale blue and yellow for wedding colors," Susanna gushed, with a giddy smile on her face.

"That's a brilliant idea!" Alice said, practically bouncing out of her seat in excitement.

"I was also hoping that the two of you would like to be two of my bridesmaids…"

"OF COURSE!" the girls squealed in unison, and they all hugged quickly in excitement.

They spent the rest of the afternoon looking at dresses, and planning, laughing, and enjoying the happiness while it lasted, not wanting a thing to change.

In the Lupin household Christmas was a quiet affair. Remus woke up, and excitedly opened his presents and eating some of his candy, before his breakfast much to his mother's dismay. For once the entire household was in high spirits, and the tension could be ignored for the day. They spent the day laughing and joking, you would think that they were completely normal; unfortunately that was not the case, and the joyous mood would come to an end.

Peter spent the holiday in higher spirits than he thought. His mother had returned, and the fighting had stopped, though for how long Peter was not sure. He was still angry at his mom, but decided to ignore it, in holiday spirit at least.

He spent the day opening expensive presents from his parents, trying to buy his love and forgiveness. It wasn't working, but he enjoyed the presents nonetheless. His grandparents came over for dinner, which Peter ate in silence, not wanting to discuss politics and whether of not Muggle Borns should be allowed to attend Hogwarts. He knew that if he shared his opinion he would have to sit and listen to a long speech by his father explaining why he was wrong. Peter knew he was right though, Lily was a Muggle Born and he hadn't met a witch that was smarter than her, and so kind hearted. After dinner he made his way quickly to his room to sort through his new chocolate frog cards. He didn't think he could stand another second of the conversation anyways. Unfortunately for him, it would not get much better in the years to come.

Adrian was going to kill someone, she was sure of it. Most likely Lucius, who was smirking and talking to her like she was a child. He knew full well that he was annoying her with talk of how awful Gryffindor house was, and how Dumbledore needed to be replaced as Headmaster. Unfortunately for her, her father was standing near by so there was nothing she could do other than glare and plot his death. She looked around the room hoping to find Sirius or Adeline, praying that one of them would come and save her. Much to her dismay Adeline was talking to the slime ball by the name of Severus Snape, most likely talking about some book he got for Christmas. Sirius was with talking with his cousin Andy (who showed up to spite her family and to show how awesome she was) and they were looking over and laughing at her pain. She turned her glare towards both of them, and she was sure that they would be dead if looks could kill. Finally Henry seemed to notice her distress and came to her aid, stealing her away from Lucius.

"That is why you are my favorite brother," she told him, giving him a grin.

"Thanks…" he said, laughing a little, "I really thought about leaving you to suffer, but you looked ready to kill him so…"

"When did you get so smart?" She asked, smiling at him.

"I have always been this smart!" He said, glaring at her.

"Lies…" She muttered, as the continued talking and laughing.

It was times like this that Adrian was happy to be home, though these moments did not happen often, and they would not become more frequent with time.

Lily's Christmas was emotional. Pricilla joined them, and they were celebrating at their Aunt's house (their old house). Her Aunt splashed her with holy water as soon as she stepped through the door, but otherwise kept her comments to herself. She tried her hardest to ignore Pricilla's presence because she made her father happy, no matter how much she didn't like her she would try for her father.

They sat in the living room opening presents and when it came to open her last present from her father she almost cried. It was in a small jewelry box and inside was her mother's favorite cross necklace. She looked up at her sister who was staring at her mother's pair of diamond earrings that Petunia had always wanted. They both quickly stood up and hugged their father.

"Thank you daddy," she whispered, "I love you."

"I love you too baby girl," he told her, and Lily smiled.

She knew that whatever else happened that day, she could handle it. She could handle Pricilla's presence, she could handle any of her Aunt's comments about her red hair, and she could handle her sisters hidden insults because she had a piece of her mother with her. And she knew that her mother would want her to keep her head held high, and that she would tell her that she could handle it. She could live above it. For the first time this break, Lily was finally happy. Unfortunately for Lily, things would not always be this easy.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey wonderful people! So, I just posted the last chapters of this story, because I am really excited to post the sequel! It is summer, so I now have the urge and the time to write again. I love all of these characters so much, so yeah. This is the last chapter of this story, now go check out the sequel (which starts in their 6th year) The Beginning of Forever! :)


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